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Crawley Councillor who resigned from Labour party is…err… STILL a Labour councillor for West Sussex Council

Published

5 months ago

on

You are going to have to bear with me on this one because even I am struggling to understand how this is even possible or allowed – well actually it may not be if party rules are to be followed.

Remember last week when two Labour councillors resigned? Well one of them was and still is a County Councillor – so you might expect that leaving Labour and becoming an Independent would mean – well – that you have left Labour and become Independent – DUH!

Stupid thing to say isn’t it, I mean it’s obvious. What other way is there to think?

Apparently a completely different way, that’s how!

For West Sussex County Council has now confirmed that the EX-Labour Borough Councillor Karen Sudan is in-fact still representing Labour on the County Council.

How is this even allowed?

This raises a worrying and somewhat confusing rule. For if this is totally ok with local government then it means you could represent one party as a county councillor and a completely different party for the borough.

But let’s add to the mix that the Labour Rules state that in order to represent the party you MUST be a member. But Cllr Sudan is no longer a member.

There is also something else here that would not be a miss within some conspiracy theory. IF Cllr Sudan was to stop representing Labour in the County Council, then the amount paid in allowances changes dramatically. Having 5 members instead of 4 allows more than £6K in additional allowances to be paid to the groups leader.

A West Sussex County Council spokesperson said:

“Cllr Karen Sudan has informed us that she remains a member of the Labour Group on West Sussex County Council. The County Council is aware that Cllr Sudan is now an independent on Crawley Borough Council.”

So where does this leave us at the moment. Well if you are one of the voters who ticked the box for Cllr Sudan then you may be thinking, what party have I voted for, and you would not be criticised for thinking so.

What is needed is clarity of the situation…not an independent Councillor waving a Labour flag.

Both Cllr Sudan and Cllr Michael Jones have been approached for comment.

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Opinion

A Game of Politics – as the end of the pop-up cycle lanes approaches why isn’t everyone happy?

Published

3 weeks ago

on

3rd November 2020

By

Yesterday we exclusively revealed that a change was afoot over the removal of the controversial pop-up cycle lanes in Crawley.

Sources revealed to CN24 how a decision to remove the pop-up cycle lanes was about to be made, but it appears this upcoming decision has caused more political tangling than you might expect.

Instead of the towns political figures banding together to support the removal of what, arguably the majority of residents have wanted to be removed, a game is now afoot over who has done the ‘real’work to make this happen.

The political games of pre-covid have returned with a vengeance and communication, published on social media, between County Council representatives and local councilors has done nothing to appease this.

A tweet published this morning, (3rd Nov) by County Councilor and Crawley Borough Councilor Michael Jones, shows the extent of the discontent based ‘entirely’ due to a response made by the Crawley MP’s office over the pop-up cycle lanes.

The irony, of course, is the extent to how ‘sad’ political games have to be brought in over something the majority of people never wanted.

But don’t expect that to stop points scoring even at dire times like an upcoming lockdown.

When the cycle lanes appeared there was major discontent, with a petition launched, a mass emailing saga erupting to the county council and most of the local leaders – all with one objective – to have the lanes removed.

Now, with a light at the end of a very leaf strewn autumnal tunnel, instead of the political community coming together to admit, quite literally, that the pop-up cycle lanes were – and let’s not beat about the bushes here – a total disaster and we should all be celebrating at their pending removal – it appears everyone wants to take credit for something that is about to happen, or use the blame culture for credit that in-fact no-one knows has had any effect whatsoever.

What’s more, where credit has not been suggested or implied, everyone is angered rather than celebrating. When I say everyone, I of course refer to those with a political point scoring agenda.

Whoever and whatever has happened to help make the change should actually be irrelevant but, let’s be honest, when did that ever matter when there is an opportunity for a quick tweet to score a point?

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