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Welcome to |
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The Crawley Community Crawley, somehow, manages to be a community comprising a number of communities. Does that make sense? The initial development plan of residential neighbourhoods each, to some extent, self sustaining in terms of social requirements has formed loose communities. Additional ‘communities’ have developed within ethnic, religious, social and activity aspects of life within the town. In this way there is quite a strong interaction across a wide spectrum of the inhabitants but you probably won’t know your neighbours name unless you have both lived here a great many years. The local authority, with its policy of mixing various ‘types’ of resident sounds as if it is encouraging this process. It is, however the result of a very carefully structured and enforced housing policy which maintains or strengthens the status quo (total Labour control). This control of the voting demographics is rigourously enforced throughout all departments of the authority. |
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Education in Crawley Education in Crawley is in the doldrums. It has borne the brunt of Educational ‘experimentation’ over the last many years. The schools have endured a minimalist approach to both preventative and subsequent curative maintenance together with massive asset stripping! - The LEA has now, delightedly, embraced PFI. It is said, by the LEA, that many of the properties that have been in their care, ever since their construction, are now beyond economic repair. They believe that the eager adoption of the PFI will enable a private organisation (a company that NEEDS to make a profit no matter what!) to build, maintain and run a school AND make a substantial profit, far cheaper than the ‘experts’! I’m not sure which business school these people went to but it was certainly not the one I attended, nor the educational centre that the government watchdog, The Audit Commission, attended. Crawley WAS a ‘New Town’, skilfully planned, designed and structured. The schools were ‘state of the art’, the best money could buy, to prepare the youth of this county for the ‘Brave New World’ they would inherit. In general terms the schools of Crawley are no worse than many others and most of the teachers are really quite good however they have been badly let down by the LEA with their eagerness to adopt untried teaching practices and disastrous cost cutting exercises. Could it be that those that can, teach, and those that cannot go into management or politics? West Sussex Education Services; Centenary House, Woodfield Road, Crawley - Tel: (01293) 895316 |
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Employment in Crawley Crawley was built with a comprehensive industrial estate known as Manor Royal. It was to this neighbourhood that many thousands of men, and not a few women would make their way, mostly by bicycle, to the factories of the growing and thriving ‘New Town’. Engineering, wood working, pattern making, electrical and electronics, printing, research - a whole gamut of technologies and opportunity. Countless apprenticeships, expert training - a thriving workforce and industry. Manor Royal still exists, there are a very few workplaces where engineering, draughtsmanship and production still take place. Most buildings now house an ‘airport service’ related workforce or car sales. One hesitates to call them paper shufflers however there is very little manufacturing going on in Crawley these days. Real training and a valuable preparation for the future is rare indeed with most employers preferring to take ‘skilled’ workers from somewhere else or subcontract out any skilled work requirement. For an indication of the current workforce requirement it is only necessary to look at the number of employment agencies in the town. Most concentrate on ‘Temps’ and temporary placements. A great many employers have no desire to take on permanent staff with the attendant costs. Not for them the worries of sick pay, holiday pay, pension requirements, job security, dedication or training. Take it or leave it is the current stance! Unfortunately, as with other areas of this country the God is Profit and social obligations count for nothing anymore. |
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Medical Health Medical Health in the community is suffering, as is the whole country, from Central Government insistence of reducing costs of public services. The local hospital, like the local schools has suffered from systematic lack of maintenance and improvement. Essential services have been contracted out with dire effects upon the health of both the facility and the patients. Crawley hospital, like so many hospitals in this country, is not the place to go if you are unwell. Central government’s relentless drive to ‘make a profit’ from all public services and every possible angle has led to major problems. Now, after ‘inheriting’ a halfway decent public service hospital the local health authority has systematically asset stripped it and allowed it to run down. Some services have been relocated and others underfunded. The logic was simple, make it uneconomic and we can then justify closing it down and building new on a cheaper site. They had hoped to build on the local Guides camp site at Pease Pottage, nice and cheap! The local council who are the owners of the land desired by the Hospital Trust were, not surprisingly, all in favour of this move. Once the new building was completed the old land, nicely, conveniently and expensively located near the centre of town, could be sold for a very significant sum thus enabling the purchase new carpets for the administration offices. With a recent report showing that administrators in the National Health Service rapidly outnumbering medical staff that could be a significant expense. For the time being central government have vetoed this plan, but watch this space! Doctor’s practices are now encouraged to expand the size of their practice by being paid by the ‘head’. The more people on their lists the more money they get. However they are charged for the ‘materials’ (prescriptions etc.) that they dispense. The upshot is - they want you on their list but really do not want you to call on them too often! Obtaining dental care on the National Health in Crawley is virtually impossible as more and more dentists jump on the ‘private patient’ health care bandwagon. I saw an advert in the local paper for “National Health Patients” and rang promptly. I was told that they had closed the list the previous day, but I could join their private patient list! The following week the advert appeared again, I rang again and guess what? They had closed the list the previous day! I pointed out that they had told me the very same thing the previous week., apparently it was a mistake. They didn’t invite me to join their private list again. I have to travel nearly 20 miles to get the National Health dental service I have paid for all my working life! |
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