I came to Harlow when I married in 1966, there was a shortage of council housing in East London and Dagenham where our families lived and we believed that Harlow would offer great opportunities for us as a new family.
A time served, degree qualified engineer I have worked in most countries of the world on diverse engineering projects that range across aerospace, deep mining, petrol chemicals, infrastructure, transport and power generation.
I have been involved in resident groups and tenant participation since 1985 and was proud of how our Town was managed, where the residents who built and lived in our town had a say in what happened. Neighbourhood offices provided a focus for the community and the officers working in them knew, and, were responsible for their patch. At the Area Committee meetings ‘we the people’ held our elected representatives and senior officers publicly to account.
In 2000 Harlow Council shut the door on community involvement and scrutiny by closing down the area committees and abandoned our local communities by shutting down our neighbourhood offices. At the very start of this present Government Grant Shapps MP’s stated ‘THAT THE TSA WAS TOAST’ [Tenant Standards Authority]. This gave the green light for Harlow council to end over 40 years of tenant participation in our Town. The Council takes no responsibility for its actions [or lack of action] and is therefore unaccountable to the people of our Town. There is no involvement that would provide the necessary checks and balances for good financial and operational management. We have gone from being one of the most progressive councils in the country to one of the worst.
I have become a member of The Harlow Alliance Party with the aims of:
- Taking our Town back for the people of Harlow.
- Stopping developers making money from Harlow’s need for council housing.
- Reinstating Area Communities and Neighbourhood Offices.
- Most importantly Harlow’s councillors must represent the people of their ward, not, the best interests of their political parties.