Cllr Tim Charters

Last night I visited and spoke at the East Surrey branch for their SGM where the branch went formally from interim to full branch status. Great team, great members and I wish them the very best in their goal of returning a Reform MP to parliament!

Crawley town centre is apparently doing very well, according to Labour. That's not what we hear from residents and that's not what we see. I pushed back, citing safety as a big driver as to why shops are moving out and shoppers prefer nearby Horsham. They will never listen. "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - George Orwell.

As is far too often my way, lots has been going on and I've given far too few updates. The most serious of the work is unfortunately on topics that cannot be discussed publicly yet. I'm getting a bunch of stuff together to share now, but to break it up a bit, I thought I'd share something a little fun for the supporters. Last weekend I attended an LGA course and dragged Cllr James Tidy along as well. We are now trained to be more effective/annoying as opposition groups. Jokes aside, we have learned about various approaches and tools at our disposal to better hold our administrations to account and, ultimately, slow-down or prevent poor decisions. These techniques will be employed immediately.

Last night at full council I asked the administration to take on emergency measures to help protect the town centre following the charges against two men, Ali Farahang and Adam Maina, for r***, attempted r*** and human trafficking of two girls, 15 and 16 years old. All I got was evasion and denial. This is not the first time I have called for public safety to be taken seriously and it has always fallen on deaf ears. Last night a member put together this video showing how out-of-touch our Labour administration really is. Read the article here: sussexexpress.co.uk/news/cri… Watch the full exchange on YouTube here: youtube.com/live/ZMNEt9WFDuI…

You're with Reform?! How could anyone have known?!

As illegal immigration issues escalate around the Gosport area, I would like to draw your attention to the new centre being developed. gov.uk/government/publicatio… "The Home Office is proceeding with plans to open a redeveloped IRC at the former Haslar IRC at Gosport in Hampshire in 2027. Development is being undertaken in two phases: refurbishment of existing buildings (Phase 1) and new build accommodation (Phase 2). Haslar IRC will be a mixture of refurbished and new-build accommodation built to the latest standards, taking account of findings from external scrutiny reports and internal lessons learned reviews to provide modern, safe, secure accommodation for detained men. Around 130 bed spaces will be created through the refurbishment of the existing accommodation, compared with 198 places at the former IRC when it closed in 2016. Subject to planning permission and the necessary approvals, Phase 2 would provide around 470 additional places, increasing Haslar’s total capacity to around 600." And here you can see the contract to build this was awarded back in July. find-tender.service.gov.uk/N…

Women's safety is a top priority for Reform UK. We in Crawley decided we couldn't wait for a general election to do something about it. So we did something.

".. the worst possible agreement that I think two countries could ever come to." Henry Smith(@HenrySmithUK) talks to Mike Graham about Burnham continuing the Great Chagos Betrayal. This deal is a betrayal to both the Chagossian people and to Britain herself. To pay to give away our sovereign territory to a China-allied state against the wishes of those from the islands is a multi-layered treachery. We can fight this in the courts - and as Reform UK have proved repeatedly, we can beat Labour this way. If you have a spare bit of cash, please consider donating to the fund. I have. crowdfunder.co.uk/p/stop-lab…

Not a bad turnout for a random campaign day and no election coming up. Thank you to everyone that came, we achieved the target with time to spare. You're awesome!

I went on BBC Politics South East today to discuss solar farms and Saturday working. Will be aired on Sunday. I enjoyed it, actually. Though we needed more time to debate.

Black clad balaclava-wearing men, even on their best behaviour, make bad optics and the average person does not consume political news in depth. If you want political party support, consider your optics.

Well done Labour! You've ramped up the deportations of ... *checks notes* Poland. Yet small boat migrants are all but ignored. Like Patrick says: "it's beyond a joke, this". Must watch.