Editorial

By Michael Casey

THIS piece is purely based on my observation after driving from Tumbler Road to Newhall and then onto Tesco in Church Langley.

IT has all looked relatively calm as Harlow faces the first day of a “lockdown” .

Traffic appears very light. The usual Second Avenue, Tillwicks Road traffic jams simply are not there.

The dog walkers and joggers are out but everyone is keeping a respectable distance.

That respectable distance does not seem to be replicated over at the Kao Park part of the Harlow Enterprise Zone, where there appears to be some form of construction work going on and from what we could see as we drove past, not an awful lot of social distancing going on.

We drove down to The Chase in Newhall. On Monday, residents were concerned that some form of work opposite the Newhall Cafe was going on. Residents who are self-isolating, found that no parking cones had been placed next to their cars. We have contacted Essex County Council and am awaiting a reply.

The workers were still down there on Tuesday morning.

Tesco in Church Langley was a relative oasis of calm. Two police officers were on beat patrol. All safe distancing procedures were in place. We were told that were not any queues at 6am this morning. The shop was probably as busy as it usually is for a Tuesday morning.

There was a reassuring whiff of disinfectant that brought some of us back to Harlow Swimming Pool in 1974 (yellow badges, footpath, stingy eyes etc).

This is just a snapshot of life in Harlow between 10am and 11am on Tuesday March 24th. 2020.