A new era of local politics
The Conservatives went into this month's local elections already deploying a heavy dose of expectation management.
They were expecting poor results, but probably not even this bad.
They used to run every second-tier council in West Sussex bar Crawley (although go back to pre-2014 and they controlled that too).
Now Adur District Council is the only place in the county where they have a majority and that was probably because there were no seats up for election there this year. And even that could swing to Labour in 2024.
The Conservatives are still the party with the most seats at Arun District Council, but they are outnumbered if you combine the number of Lib Dem, Labour, Green and Independent councillors. Some form of coalition is probably likely in the coming weeks.
In Mid Sussex, the Tories held all 54 seats after the 2015 results. They’ve now been knocked down to the secondlargest party behind the Lib Dems, who secured majorities in both Horsham and Chichester.
This historic shift of power presents an opportunity fresh approaches including greater collaboration between our district and boroughs, which are facing many of the same issues, namely a cost of living crisis, rampant overdevelopment coupled with a shocking lack of infrastructure and crumbling services.
Residents are also expecting to see our decision makers be far more proactive on the journey to net zero and making our communities greener.
West Sussex needs to speak with one voice and loudly demand far better for our beautiful county. This includes a greater share of national funding, more devolved powers and freedom to apply common sense to local plan making processes.