‘Serious savings’ needed for Crawley Borough Council to keep its head above water

During an online scrutiny meeting, leader Peter Lamb told members that the first quarter of the financial year had brought a £1.2m deficit, with more bad news to follow.

He said: “We need to be clear, this is not going to be the end of it.

“Certainly there will be further deficits in subsequent quarters, particularly if we’re required to go back into lock-down, which would drastically affect our income.”

So far this year, the council has lost £343,000 of income from its car parks, £1.29m from sports and recreation and £227,000 of culture-related income, including the town’s community centres.

Mr Lamb told the committee ‘much, much harsher problems’ could be round the corner as both Parkwood Theatres and Freedom Leisure, who run the Hawth theatre and K2 leisure centre respectively, were working to claim compensation for having to close the facilities.

On top of that, the economic impact on both the town and Gatwick Airport meant more and more people would see their income fall to such a level that they would be able to claim council tax benefit.

Mr Lamb said: “We are going to have some very, very difficult choices to take.

“While the immediate pressures on the budget have been resolved to some extent through reserves and working out in-year savings, people need to be conscious that this council is going to have to undertake some very serious savings in the next couple of years if it is going to keep its head above water as a result of what has happened.”