Crawley benefits from having nice parks and green spaces within our town. Tilgate Park is our largest and most popular park, that also has many excellent attractions and facilities. It is popular for miles around as well as locally. This can bring challenges as while we want good facilities that people like to enjoy and that bring in income to help pay for the park’s upkeep, being too busy risks the park’s special feel being lost. Busy times also cause parking and traffic problems for nearby residents, especially when the Labour Council keeps whacking up the parking charges, displacing cars onto residential roads.
There is more Crawley Borough Council can do to improve facilities and attractions in other Crawley parks that they own, most notably Goffs Park which has untapped potential. The lack of any toilet facilities and very limited available parking are obvious barriers to encouraging visitors and improving Goffs Park, which would also potentially take some pressure off Tilgate Park at popular times.
Next month, Crawley Borough Council’s Cabinet will decide whether to implement their proposed PSPO (Public Space Protection Order) to fine dog owners whose dog is off the lead, anywhere at all within Tilgate Park including the Golf Course. The scale of this is excessive, ill-conceived and unenforceable. The Council already bans dogs off leads around Tilgate Lake and I support enforcement powers here to protect waterfowl and to help manage the busy paths where most people walk, jog or ride bikes. A case can also be made for the lawned area to the west of the lake where people like to congregate. It needs to be a clearly defined and busy central part of the park only - not the entire park.
On the subject of getting it wrong for Tilgate Park, there should also be a public apology from the Council’s Labour political leadership for the Jubilee Beacon lighting disappointment last Thursday evening. It would be nice to see a change from their usual modus operandi of taking the credit for everything but responsibility for nothing - always blaming others for their own failings.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
8th June 2022
