Harlow Council rubber stamps new three year plan to “make Harlow the best town in the country”
News / Sat 11th Dec 2021 at 03:30pm
HARLOW Council has agreed a new three-year plan to “make Harlow the best town in the country to raise your family and to send your children to school; the best place to start a business; the best place to live and to be.”
The aim to “make Harlow the best town in the country” is all part of the Council’s new corporate strategy adopted at last night’s (9 December) Full Council meeting. The new strategy provides the overall direction for the Council’s day-to-day work and decision making.
The Leader of Harlow Council, Councillor Russell Perrin, has set out a bold new vision and set of ambitions for the Council, including to: regenerate and transform Harlow’s estates and town centre, restore pride in the streets and estates, radically improve council services whilst providing value for money for council taxpayers, and support all residents and businesses now and in the future as the town recovers from the pandemic.
The strategy focuses on four key themes: economic growth, social cohesion, safeguarding the environment and being an efficient council. Within the strategy are the ambitions and work priorities which will be delivered by the council’s seven cabinet members.
Councillor Russell Perrin, Leader of Harlow Council, said: “Harlow has been a great place for many people to live and work over the past 75 years. If Harlow is to continue being a great place to live and work, if it is to continue to be a place of enterprise and innovation, if it is to continue as a green and pleasant place in our country’s landscape, then it will require the administration I lead to drive its regeneration and renewal.
“This plan shifts our efforts in regenerating our town from low to high gear. It allows us to get on with the job of making Harlow the best town in the country and extending opportunity and prosperity to everyone in our town.
“This is not just another document designed to gather dust, but a clear statement of intent that this Council, working with local enterprise, charities, volunteer groups, partner organisations and all of our people, will truly transform Harlow.”
As well as getting on with the job of rebuilding and transforming Harlow, Councillor Perrin knows very well that day-to-day the council must be an efficient organisation and one that delivers for its residents and businesses. He added: “This council will be the main driver in making Harlow an even better place to be, but, above all else we will be a council that is there to serve the people and businesses of this town. That is what our plan seeks to do and that is what we will deliver.”
jarrett
2021-12-11 17:26:25
Make council housing the priority and stop cuddling up to the developers who keep party donations up.
Clare Harrison McCartney
2021-12-11 18:32:33
Hurry up then. Why is all the build back better money solely injected into businesses? This money needs to be invested into a night life for Harlow. Where is the promised music venue which was advertised in the promo video? If you are going to make Harlow an iconic town, you need to glam and glitz it up and make it an attractive up and coming place where people want to be, not a boring slummy town with a bad name on BBC panorama. You say you want to make the town a great place to bring up families, what about when the children get to their twenties? Those kids are going to want to do stuff, not just play on the swings in the town park or go swimming in leisure zone. London is near and great, but sometimes you want to go out nearer to home. When I was growing up here we had the square . I started going there when I was 17. We had quite a few night clubs and the town was once thriving. It was a safe space too . What about all those young people in terminus house? It’s like living in a shoe box in there, they deserve a safe night life in their home town. Yeah it’s all good focussing on young families bringing up kids , but you’ve got to provide a night life with music and culture, or else it’s just a forgotten town with no soul. I do have faith that things can change and this town can be transformed. I’d love to see it transition into the thriving place it once was. Good luck.
pete henegan
2021-12-11 19:25:09
Having a plan is certainly a good starting off point so I wish the current administration, indeed every one in Harlow, every success. My major concern about planning for the future of Harlow is the uncertainty surrounding the future of the hospital, I don't see how it is possible to plan anything for the Town Centre until its future is resolved
David Hughes
2021-12-12 09:59:10
I smell council delay ractics and bullshit
David Hughes
2021-12-12 10:00:48
Tactics not ractics sorry !
novoman
2021-12-12 11:11:06
"low to high gear" obviously refer to the awful desire to build hi rise hi density tower blocks: something I doubt anyone wants. The Tories are conducting a survey about Harlow at a 100: years ahead and something to which they cannot be held to account. Where was the in depth comprehensive survey about 23000 extra homes hggt pfp project, M11 being run into Gilden Way, High rise building and the Tory vision of what they think we want to make Harlow "the best place" to live? Their vision is let Esst Herts develop, overload Harlow, pollute, create congestion, push house prices to the fastest rising in the country, build too few Council homes and line the pockets of developers, (the like of which fund the Conservative Party), destroy the Stort River Valley natural nature reserve whilst building a monstrous raised road Eastern Crossing. On top of this the vision will destroy the flood plain instead of increase it by the needed 10 % to increase biodiversity and the lack of vision will see more sewage discharges, pollution and flooding into the river and Harlow homes. The danger is that the 3 yr plan does not build on the Gibberd plan. A plan that, from what we now know because of lessons about Climate change and pollution, was light years ahead of it's time, yet still not understood by most of our local politicians. Another danger is that the changes now proposed will set in concrete projects that will permanently damage the town. Look at the debacle at Kathryns, it shows a degree of incompetence, a lack of diligence, a failure to act on behalf of residents by the Council and a broken planning system through which developers can drive entirely inappropriate development: how can we trust Harlow Council at all. It's undemocratic to push ahead on proposals that were never put to the electorate in detail. If the plan passed at Cabinet is so good then do your homework, consult energetically door to door and let's have a local referendum.
Kim Oconnor
2021-12-12 11:26:40
All you councils are not thinking of future generations, because if you were you would build council houses, have any of you councils know how many people are waiting on homes, any idea how many in rented accommodation being paid for by benifts, and any idea how many in harf way houses, not to mention those on streets. You are not thinking of future generations at all. Because if you was, you would build council. Theses housing estates that your building every where are unaffordable to most. And not thinking of theses people at all. I'm not saying town centre doesn't need up grade, I'm not say we don't need homes, but we need homes for the homeless. You have sold us out to HGGT, I went to consultation, not one person lived in Harlow, not one has walked round Harlow, and not one knew places I spoke of. Says it all. And all this connecting us all up, to theses housing estates, I asked this question and could not answer. This is a greed and profit thing, no more no less , with not a thought to people waiting years for a home. And at the expense of our green belt, and our beautiful river, what a monstrosity your going to build over our river. Destroying wildlife and our wellbeing. Because our river is the only peaceful place we have in Harlow. I say this to all councils, so you can't pass the buck to others. SAVE OUR STORT.
Aubrey flack
2021-12-12 12:01:32
I think it will take more than three years, looking at the state of harlow at the moment
Andy Wright
2021-12-12 12:01:43
So very true
novoman
2021-12-12 22:17:05
What can be achieved in 3 years? Improving Harlow: open ice rink, live music venue, give local residents Leisure sports facilities free pass,( fund from fees at Leisure Zone car park) , ski slope, more youth clubs, make all schools community schools, restore working market square, park and ride at 5th Avenue, j7a, j7, build 500 Council houses, reduce homeless from 672 to zero, preserve and protect green spaces, tackle sewage and other pollution, stop the Eastern Crossing, cash in on Science Park development and the coming of Public health England. Block hggt pfp, stop all high rise development except PAH, expand theatre to make the town centre vibrant arts and entertainment centre, make expanded PAH high rise on current site, create reliable, frequent free bus services with money saved from not building Eastern crossing, restore Community Support Officers, eliminate drugs gangs, better and more cycleways, the list goes on: in other words restore much of what has been lost by cuts and poor management over the decades and focus on improving the quality of life here rather than improving the profits for developers.
Nicholas Taylor
2021-12-13 00:11:05
The Council is currently carrying out a residents survey and I would urge everyone to take this opportunity to make their views known about what they want to see for Harlow in the future. It will then be interesting to see if the Council take any notice of the views expressed. The Harlow Alliance Party have been very clear on this subject, residents and visitors should see the town centre as a centre of excellence and a destination of choice both for shopping, leisure and culture. This involves building a new, larger theatre, an exhibition centre, a live music venue, relocating the Gibberd Gallery and perhaps some parts of Harlow Museum, indeed a place where Harlow can showcase the best of the town. The Council is spending a million pounds on relaying the surface in the area around Market Square, such spending will do nothing to attract more visitors, neither will spending millions more on a new bus station which no doubt like the present one will suffer from a lack of repair and maintenance in the future.
P.
2021-12-13 07:20:03
“Make Harlow great” is probably the best one liner I’ve read in 2021.
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