Harlow Labour leader slams Tory “council of chaos”
Politics / Mon 6th Feb 2023 at 06:19pm
THE LEADER of the Harlow Labour group has commented on the recent tide of resignations and sacking among the ruling Conservative cabinet.
Councillor Chris Vince said: “As the Conservative administration at Harlow Council flounders around like a rudderless ship in a sea of chaos there are many questions to be asked but one burning question is top of the list, where is the Leader?
The shock resignation of Deputy Leader Dan Swords is the latest in a series of failures afflicting Cllr Perrin’s leadership and leaves another huge hole to be filled. Cllr Swords was fulfilling at least two Portfolios plus his Deputy Leader responsibilities. For many he was the de facto leader of the council.
His departure from the flagship regeneration role coupled with a damning criticism of the leadership will leave residents, businesses and council partners needing reassurance amid growing concerns about the future.
This is a time for strong and confident leadership but we’ve had four days of radio silence from Cllr Perrin. In January he hid for 10 days when another of his cabinet quit, he cannot possibly wait that long again.
He needs to come out of hiding and let us all know what is going on. If he can’t lead and his administration can’t function they should all get out of the way. Harlow Labour is ready to step up and tackle the mess the Conservatives have created.
Harlow deserves much better than this Council of Chaos.
YH understands that details of cabinet changes will be published on Tuesday morning.
Please could Cllr Vince set out his vision for Harlow. I definitely won't be voting Conservative in future elections, but I'd like to know his vision for the town given how regularly he comments on YourHarlow.
Chris, could you give us your vision for Harlow.
Cllr Perrin is the Liz Truss of Harlow Council - a disaster.
Sadly Perrin has taken the top spot of being the worst leader of Harlow Council that I have every known. They made a disastrous decision not to continue with Andrew Johnson.Perrin has failed to show leadership at every cabinet and full council meeting. To be fair he has not been able to gain a collective approach from his wider team,which is just as much their fault. I was the joint leader for 2 years and I can honestly say I hated the role. On reflection I wasn’t good but Perrin is much worse. Some can and some can’t. He can’t and to continue leaves the wider council at risk. His deputy has caused such deep damage that will take sometime to repair. We need a fresh start with a clear mandate and a new leadership team. It’s a debacle.
Luke, Labour had decade or so in power in Harlow until recently and the town was still stagnent. Maybe the solution is we all stand as independents and not affiliated to a political party, not wanting to play politics and actually grow the town for all its inhabitants
It's like a school playground. Grow up all of you. Labour, you had your turn for years and it achieved the square root of sod all. Looking forward to hearing what the reshuffle will be. Hopefully some headway can be made.
Perhaps time for one of the other parties to step up? They seem remarkably quiet.
Again stop looking to the parties - we need to elect independents who care about the town.
Adam, many residents have had the chance of voting for an alternative in the Harlow Alliance Party for the last four years but to date we have not been able to break the strangle hold of the two main Parties. Change will only occur if people who do not vote, vote for a change and those that do vote don't just stick to whoever they have always voted for. The two main Parties are wedded to the politics of Westminster, rarely agreeing with the other Party even when common sense should prevail. We are happy to agree with either Party if we think something is being done for the benefit of residents, we are an alliance of people who don't all agree on every subject but are able to agree on enough issues to keep us all 'singing from the same hymn sheet'.
Nicholas, how many people are you
Terry Gibbs you can’t possibly be proud of the Tory Party or indeed intend to vote for them you say the Labour Party achieved sod all well a Tory Party with this government’s record possibly thousands or unnecessary deaths due to COVID in/late action in containing the spread of the virus, parting while our loved ones died horribly and alone, corruption running rife through the party self confessed lying PM and MP’S MY GOD MAN YOU AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU NEED TO WAKE UP FAST THE TORIES ARE CRIMINAL’S riding above the LAWS THAT THEY THEMSELVES SET. IT’S TREASON.
Dec Han. Let's stick to talking about local council issues here... No, I didn't vote tory, I actually voted for the Harlow Alliance party, but even that was a bit of struggle considering how abysmal their leaflet was. Anyway, regardless, I still want the conservatives to get on and make improvements the town needs.
Terry, sorry to hear your thoughts about our leaflet, we would be very interested to hear from you so that we can consider your comments. Please take the trouble to email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you. We do not have the huge backing of Parties which have leaflet designers for areas across the whole country, any help we can get would be most appreciated.
I completely agree with Nicholas on this, the leaflet s are all down to funding, the green party rely on donations for this. We are not funded by government.
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