Category: News

The Government set a deadline of 26 September for councils in Essex to submit a case for change.

Officers and councillors across Essex have spent thousands of hours to come up with a creditable plan by the deadline. You might just think that the fifteen councils that make up Essex, a tiny dot on the planet would come up with a consensus of an opinion but it is now clear that this is not to be the case.

We have councils who believe that Greater Essex is best suited with three Unitary authorities, one believes four, yet another a different version with four and others with five.

What is striking is that much of the work undertaken strives to save money but provides  little evidence about service improvements or retains community identity. The power to govern us will be placed in far fewer hands, here in Harlow we could end up with just fifteen councillors out of eighty three in a new district, leaving democracy in tatters. Even those supporting change have great reservations and so they should.

Whilst residents will be asked to comment on the proposal later this year, the real test will come next May, assuming of course that local elections are not cancelled again. HAP would again urge readers from all political parties or none to join with us and sign the re-launched petittion objecting to any attempt to cancel the elections. The petition can be found here.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/vote

Readers of yourharlow and those looking on the councils website will have read what the council is doing to make improvements across the town. But what of news about the biggest changes in the way that Local Government is organised in Essex since 1974? This issue was raised with the Leader of Harlow Council at the Cabinet meeting held on 12 June by the Deputy Leader of Harlow Alliance who pointed out that nothing on this subject had appeared in Harlow Times or on the council’s website. The Leader’s response was that information had appeared on on-line platforms (who knew?) with a copy in the Civic Office (who goes there these days) and in libraries (who knew?).

So, who in Harlow knows that a new website was launched on 14 August by the Greater Essex Councils which provides a wealth of information on the reorganisation of councils in Essex or that the Local Government Association has also launched its own website? Virtually every other council in Essex has information, often on its home page about these two new websites but you will not find anything about these on Harlow Council’s. Other councils have gone even further, the residents of Rochford Council for instance are able to participate in a survey, running from 5 August until 1 September and send in questions to the council, the residents of Maldon were invited to participate in a survey running from 25 June until 20 July and those in Thurrock from 16 July until 27 August with the council going even further by holding a public meeting on 19 August.

In the summary section of Grant Thornton, Institute for Governance report dated March 2025 it states that “Local Leaders must ensure the public can share and inform decisions on their future governance. This should involve consultation with a wide range of communities and stakeholders through mechanisms such as focus groups and citizen assembles“. The fact is, there is no evidence of this in Harlow. Whatever changes are made in two years time, they will fundamentally affect the way that residents across Essex are governed and this will be felt even more so in Harlow without a Town Council or Parish Councils. It seems that yet again, we have a council who wants to keep its residents in the dark until it is too late to have any say on how we are governed in the future.

Since becoming the Leader of the Harlow Alliance Party in 2019, I have come to realise that both main politic parties are very good at spending other people’s money, often on vanity schemes which are of no benefit to the residents which they are supposed to represent.

The Conservative Party in Harlow spent many years in opposition complaining about the poor performance of the Labour Administration, who wasted money planning schemes that never materialised or schemes such as the resurfacing of Market Square just a few years ago which cost over a quarter of a million pounds.

Since before last Christmas, like me, many residents have become bemused by the time it is taking to resurface areas of paving along Harvey Centre Approach, Broadwalk and East Walk. Even when work is being undertaken, few workmen have been on site. As a second thought I have wondered how much this work is costing and ponder if some repairs and a deep clean of the existing surfaces would have been a much cheaper option.

I made a Freedom of Information request of Harlow Council, seeking an answer to the question of how much this work is costing (never mind where the money is coming from). It also begs the question of when work will start on the former Occasio House site and how much will be spent on paving and a new road on that site.

So how much I hear you ask?           Well it is just a mere £6,954,000!

At a meeting held on 10 January, Councillors at Essex County Council voted to postpone elections in May 2025 as a prelude to the scrapping of Essex County Council and councils like Harlow Council.

The Harlow Alliance Party (HAP) believe that such changes will be disaster for the future of Harlow, which will become just a small part of a new Unitary Council stretching from Saffron Walden to Chigwell.

If you agree with HAP, that voters should have had the opportunity to vote in May for candidates who are against these changes, please sign the petition HERE:

Yet again Harlow Council are manipulating the planning process to bulldoze through approval for the removal of more than 22 established trees on this site in order to progress with their own application to build 14 houses. Along with removal of a further 20 hedgerow trees, including Laurels, Blackthorns and Hawthorns, this will represent an increase of 400 % on the figure presented to the Planning Committee in August last year.

The original Arboriculture report and its update were not supported by the planning sections consultant arborist because they contained insufficient information, and the proposals were not in accordance with several of the Local Development Plan Policies.

None the less the Committee, even after concerns were raised by many Councillors about the removal of just 9 trees, approved the application. Now they are using the back door to remove in excess of 40 trees without the need to go to committee or consult with residents. Disgraceful, scandalous, shameful, behaviour.  

The Harlow Alliance Party has long campaigned against building on the Green Belt close to the boundary of Harlow, supported by over 900 residents who signed a petition objecting to the proposals to the south and west of the town.

The present consultation follows in the same manner, the proposals will have far reaching effect on existing residents in the town, but EFDC have again chosen to seek the views of residents in only a small part of Harlow and given them just three weeks to respond. Harlow Council on the other hand has made no attempt to advise residents of the planning application.

Anyone currently trying to navigate Harlow’s roads will know that sitting in queues of traffic is now a daily routine no matter which route you take.

On reading the detail of the Latton Priory outline planning application  the more it becomes apparent that once again priority is being given to profit making house construction over the delivery of timely supportive infrastructure.

There is evidence in the outline planning application that the proposed STC route from Harlow Town to Commonside Rd through to Latton Priory will not be completed until 2030 at the earliest.The aspirations of the HGGT Transport Strategy – to achieve a mode split of 60% by non-car driver modes in garden communities, and of 50% across the town as a whole by 2033 is going to face challenges without the delivery of the Latton Priory STC mobility hub. And for residents who move into homes built in the early phases of the site development there will be compromised public travel options.

Promoted by Nicholas Taylor of 26 Fir Park Harlow CM19 4JY

The Government has today (December 19th) published the much-delayed Policy Framework which will give Councils power to reduce the number of homes they must allow to be built if development will significantly alter the character of their area or damage the Green Belt, as well as exempt them from building houses on prime agricultural land. In addition, it removes the requirement for Local Housing Needs Assessments and allowing Councils to build as few homes as they wish. In anticipation of these changes sixty Councils have already paused or withdrawn their Local Plans as they will no longer be held to targets set by the standard method.

So, what does this mean for the future of the Harlow and Gilston Town, which as things stand will see hundreds of acres of Green Belt land destroyed, the removal of many commercial greenhouses to the west of the town and the destruction of many green spaces within the Harlow boundary? Will Councillors at Harlow DC, East Herts DC and Epping Forest DC say enough is enough and follow the lead of councillors at sixty other Council’s and withdraw their plans.

In the meantime developers are crying crocodile tears about this framework, whilst sitting on many brown field sites which have lain derelict for many years.