The government has announced the start of a Sussex-wide consultation on Local Government Reorganisation.

The consultation will seek views on three proposals that include Crawley.

The options include create two unitary authorities, one covering Crawley, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, one unitary authority covering the entire county and create five unitary councils across Sussex, including one covering Crawley, Horsham, and Chichester.

Information on the consultation and how to respond can be found on shapingwestsussex.org

A 52-year-old man has admitted to stealing luggage from a mother while she breastfed her daughter at Gatwick Airport.

John Brooks, pleaded guilty to stealing a suitcase and a child’s backpack on 30 October.

He also admitted causing criminal damage worth £88.30 after breaking a security barrier with his head as he escaped with the luggage.

Brooks was fined £388.30, £300 as compensation to the victim, and the rest for damaging the barrier.

Eleven projects have been awarded a share of £500,000 in Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) developer contributions for improvements to vital local facilities and services.

Successful projects to receive funding include a local refuge, Merstham Football Club, Salfords Village Hall, Horley Health Hub, local Scout groups, Innes Sports Pavilion in Horley and Redhill Brook flood alleviation and environmental education works.

CIL is a charge placed on developers to ensure that new developments contribute towards the essential infrastructure and services needed to support them, collected by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council. The majority of CIL money is pooled together to spend on larger, more costly projects across the borough, such as these, in a pot known as the Strategic Fund.

Delivering positive change for communities

Councillor Kate Fairhurst, Executive Member for Place, Planning and Regulatory Services, says: “It’s essential that funds collected from new developments are spent on important projects like these to support that development and deliver positive change for our communities.

“This funding is a significant amount of money that will make a real difference in delivering improvements to facilities and services that will have a significant benefit for the local communities they serve.”

In response to Horley Health Hub’s successful funding bid securing £25,377, Katherine Saunders, CEO of Alliance for Better Care CIC, said: “We are extremely grateful to have received this CIL funding. This news was warmly welcomed by our hub volunteers and the many members who use the hub regularly. The funding will allow us to make the hub even safer and more accessible for the community, ensuring that it continues to be a welcoming space for everyone.”

Horley Pathfinders Scout Group secured £31,000 for improvements to two venues. John Williamson, Trustee commented: “We are really pleased to be given this money from the CIL fund, which will help us to continue to maintain our buildings and means we are able to provide scouting experiences to Beavers, Cubs and Scouts both now and into the future. We have over 100 young people regularly attending so this is a real bonus for us and the local community.”

These funding awards follow an annual review and update of the Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Strategic Infrastructure Programme (SIP) by the Executive in June. The review saw the approval of £500,000 additional CIL funds for urgent infrastructure projects to support the borough’s development and its communities by 2027, along with multiple funding allocations for other projects.

Bidding for a share of the funding was open between 30 June and 30 July 2025.

Many worthwhile bids

Cllr Fairhurst added: “As anticipated, the bidding for these funds was extremely competitive and was vastly oversubscribed. We received 36 bid requests for a wide range of worthwhile projects totalling in excess of £5 million for the half a million pounds of funding that was available. We are hopeful that additional funding will be available next year for further community infrastructure projects, potentially including some of those that missed out this year.”

The successful projects to receive this strategic CIL funding are listed on the Council’s website and will be reported in the SIP Review and Update report to Executive in June 2026, and in the annual Infrastructure Funding Statement for the 2025 financial year (published in December 2026).

More information

• For more information about CIL see reigate-banstead.gov.uk/CIL.
• To read the June Executive report and its Annexes, the meeting at which the funding was announced, see item 7 of the committee agenda.
• About Horley Health Hub
• About Pathfinder Scout Group

A prolific shop thief has been jailed over his latest offences in Crawley.

Laurie Murphey had been issued with a Community Order in court for shop thefts in September.

Yet just a day later he breached a Community Protection Notice not to enter the town centre and committed further shop thefts.

The 34-year-old, of no fixed address, entered stores in the town and was seen stealing items from shelves.

At Crawley Magistrates’ Court on 18 November he admitted eight shop thefts, eight breaches of a Community Protection Notice, and one count of obstructing an officer in the execution of their duty.

He was detained by officers from Crawley NPT on 17 November and was remanded to appear before the court for the charges.

Murphey admitted the offences, and has been jailed for 18 weeks as a result of his latest offences.

The court was told how he entered Peacocks in Queens Square in Crawley on 21 September, a day after he had appeared in court and admitted shop thefts.

He entered the same store on 25 September, and also committed shop theft offences at Sainsbury’s in Crawley Avenue, and entered the town centre on numerous occasions through September and October.

Speaking after the case Crawley District Commander Chief Inspector Steve Turner said: “Our Neighbourhood Policing Team has worked closely alongside businesses in Crawley town centre to identify prolific offenders and ensure we gather evidence to pursue prosecutions against them.

“We understand the impact that shop theft has on retail workers and on the public, and we are determined to catch offenders.

“Murphey showed little regard for a court order which required him to stay out of Crawley town centre and the County Oak Retail Park. So we are pleased that Murphey was apprehended and is now serving a significant custodial sentence.

“We continue to encourage the public to report incidents to us and will continue to engage with businesses in Crawley to tackle shoplifting.”