Sir,

THE response from Cllr Durcan to the comments made by The Harlow Alliance Party about the failed funding bid to help regenerate the town centre cannot go unanswered. The simple fact is, the bid failed, it clearly did not meet the brief set by government. 

This brief would have contained a multitude of criteria which the bid would have to demonstrate it had met. Amongst these was the need to demonstrate local and stakeholder support, with a list of six examples of who should be involved. These included community groups. Harlow Council’s consultation period with residents was concluded in just two weeks in July, leaving little if any time for alterations to be made before the bid was submitted. Did the council for example consult with any of the many resident associations in the town or for example the Harlow U3A and the Taxi proprietors to obtain comments. HAP think not. How many responses did the council receive from the public we wonder?

The ownership of land or property that forms any scheme is a matter of negotiation. The area in front of The Playhouse is owned by The Harvey Centre and Essex County Council (ECC) so we can only hope that Harlow Council did begin negotiations with those two bodies about the future of this land before submitting their bid. With this in mind, the Council should have gone further and negotiated with ECC to get the library relocated and the building partly demolished. Likewise with the Post Office, so that a better entrance to Market Square could be constructed. The building in Market Square is owned by the Council so this could be demolished without permission from elsewhere. As a last resort of course the council could turn to compulsory purchase orders to ensure that the town centre is regenerated in a planned way. 

As for roofing over Broadwalk, this could involve a free standing roof, but in any event we are sure the owners of the existing and new buildings would be only too pleased to see the shops enclosed, boosting occupancy rates and shopper footfall.

The way this bid was put together, the poor consultation which took place before it was submitted and the response to criticism since the bids failure just compound the “We know best” attitude demonstrated by the Labour Group running Harlow Council.