If the way Labour are running our country at a national and a local level here in Worthing was a driving test it would be a straight ‘fail’. We have now seen our 14th U-turn by Labour in such a short period of time that people’s heads are spinning trying to remember what's in or what's out, what's happening and what's not. This is no way to run a Country, let alone our local Council here in Worthing.
I’ve been involved in politics at a local level for a number of years and know it can be fickle. It’s well recognised that as local elected councillors we are judged, not by what we do here in Worthing, but what is happening on a national level, by the trials, tribulations and errors of the national party and are rarely judged by what we provide or achieve locally. This is as true here in Worthing as anywhere else.
Yet over what will soon be four years of a Labour run council in Worthing I have never seen such a head of steam build up that is so angry and frustrated by what the Labour Councillors, who run Worthing council, are doing, or in many cases not doing, here in our town.
There's frustration that they have cancelled so many council led development opportunities to build new homes for the thousands of people on the housing waiting list with over 380 affordable homes lost. That they have sold off 3,500 sqm of land in Broadwater intended for new businesses and warehousing to help our local companies grow and expand, and employ more local people. There's every indication that they now intend to sell off the 7 hectare former landfill site at Decoy Farm that could provide 13,500 sqm of employment floorspace, instead of building it out and reaping the financial rewards for the local tax payers to keep council tax payers bills lower over the years to come.
Add to that the chaos they let loose on the town when they commissioned the Worthing Heat Network, without ensuring any proper construction controls to help protect the town centre business who then bore the financial cost of lost custom in the High Street and Guildbourne Centre, just illustrates further the damage they have caused here in Worthing.
We even had a Worthing Labour Councillor tell us that the changes in business rates for cafes, pubs and the hospitality sectors were fair, yet only a few weeks later we see another national U-turn as the Labour government folds under the reality of what they are inflicting on our hard working traders.
Which brings us to the latest U-turn on local elections. I can only speak for Worthing, but it's simple, they should never have been cancelled. As a Conservative group we forced this Labour Council to hold an extraordinary council meeting to debate this issue. But at that meeting it was clear that the council leader, Cllr Sophie Cox had already made her mind up, she brushed it off and dismissed all the reasonable challenges presented to her, claiming it was essential to free up officer time to deliver local government reform, rather than hold elections.
So in May, after yet another U-turn, we move to local elections for the Borough Council in Worthing. What will change, maybe not a lot. People need to recognise that in Worthing only a third of councillors are elected at any time (13 in May 2026). If political polls are to be believed and Reform gets more councillors in our town, whatever their numbers they will not be sufficient to take control of this council. If people truly want change and get this Labour Council out of office, then they will need to vote tactically and vote Conservative. As the largest opposition group, it can only be our group, with newly elected councillors, that can now add up in sufficient numbers to remove Labour from office. Otherwise this council risks falling into a position of ‘no overall control’ and two years of political bickering.
Cllr Kevin Jenkins - leader of Worthing Conservative group - Worthing Council
