Online initiative buildsurrey.net has helped local firms in the county clinch contracts worth more than £10 million pounds over the past year.

Deals totaling £10.3 million have been secured through the website created as part of the county council’s pledge to ensure 60% of its spending is with local businesses.

Local spending on goods and services has also increased beyond 52%.

The initiative also helped the county council earn a government award for being among the top 10 authorities in the country to do business with. More than 750 firms are now registered on the site.

http://news.surreycc.gov.uk/2014/04/30/local-firms-win-contracts-worth-10-million/

With spring in the air, Sussex Police is urging both drivers and cyclists to make the county safer by looking out for each other on the roads.

Last year four cyclists were killed on the county’s roads and a further 145 were seriously injured.

Across the country the number of cyclists killed on the roads increased from 107 to 118 between 2011 and 2012. More than 3,000 cyclists were seriously injured during this period as well.

Sergeant Carl Knapp says that “70% of collisions where cyclists suffer serious harm or are killed happen at junctions” He urges all road users to reflect on this and to take that opportunity to double check their view at junctions before passing through.

http://www.sussex.police.uk/whats-happening/latest/news-stories/2014/04/30/drivers-and-cyclists-urged-to-look-out-for-each-other

A man from Crawley has been reunited with his dog after two years thanks to a microchip and the quick work of community wardens.

The rare chihuahua pug crossbreed often known as a chugg, was taken, along with his brother, during a London house burglary two years ago.

Two years later, on the 29th March he was handed in to a pet store in Tilgate
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Crawley Council’s Community Wardens were called and quickly established that Anil Malhotra was the young dog’s owner thanks to the information held in the dogs microchip.

From 6 April 2016 the law is changing to make microchips for dogs compulsory.

http://www.crawley.gov.uk/pw/index.htm

Crime figures in Crawley have fallen again over the last 12 months.

Figures from the independent Office for National Statistics show that since 2010 recorded crime in Sussex has fallen by 13 per cent.

There has also been a fall in violent crime across the whole country with fewer people going to hospital with injuries from violent incidents.

http://www.crawley.gov.uk/pw/index.htm