Two high profile Tory cabinet members quit hours after new leader elected
News / Sat 13th May 2023 at 05:26pm
TWO high profile members of the Harlow Council cabinet have announced they will be resigning from their positions.
The shock announcements were made just an hour after Bush Fair councillor Dan Swords was made leader of the Harlow Conservatives.
A vote on the 22-year-old councillor becoming leader of Harlow Council will take place at the annual council meeting on May 25th.
This is starting to make the Tory back bench look a bit busy with leader of Harlow Council, Cllr Russell Perrin set to return their next week as well.
Tony Edwards
2023-05-13 18:24:59
So a week and a half ago the Conservatives present a united front to the Harlow electorate. No mention of intended resignations then. Now we have the leader and two senior Cabinet members resign. Meanwhile there is an ongoing HTS dispute with workers striking. Houses where the roofs haven't been fixed and a deal supposedly done with Essex County Council to fix the roads where the patching has been appalling. It's Chaos!
Adam Taylor
2023-05-13 18:29:28
What did they do ? honest question apart from talked head and photo opportunities ? It seems the conservatives are imploding on national and local scales. Still maybe we can get a real conservative party which favours low taxes, business, self reliance, stops net zero climate emergency lies from the ashes.
Heather
2023-05-13 18:39:09
So let me get this straight. Last year Dan Swords resigned because the party wasn't going in the direction he wanted, now he is leader and 2 others have resigned. This must mean that the party is now going to change direction but which way will that be?
Pedro
2023-05-13 18:57:51
Beware the Ides of March
Neil Warner-Baker
2023-05-13 19:02:08
Let's hope that our councillors can get on with the job that they are elected for, which to my mind is...to help with the concerns of local residents in the wards they represent. Street parking, flowerbeds, the state of our roads and paving..Let us be proud of Our Town again. And please Stop with this obsession of doing shabby deals with property developers to enlarge and concrete over our town..I don't think that is what the electorate have voted for.....And yet who are the senior Cabinet holders Left? Cllr Hardware and Leppard...the developers friends. P.s. I wish Nicky well, I know she's worked hard in her role and represents Harlow at ECC in lieu of Essex County Cllrs on flood defence which ironically met at County Hall last week.
David Forman
2023-05-13 19:25:37
Dan Swords has lost two very able Cabinet members in Nicky Purse and Joel Charles. Cllr Swords is going to preside over a Tory group fighting like rats in a sack.
Mark
2023-05-13 19:47:25
David is right, while the Tories squabble and fight like rats in a sack, who is getting on with the job of directing the Council.
Matthew Saggers
2023-05-13 20:54:47
Thank you all for your comments. While I try to not take offence that for many of us hard working back bench Tories who remain focused on the job in hand who are not highlighted. Judge the group on results on regeneration, community and keeping the HDC Council tax frozen helping many of those in need as well as so many other projects that are about to reach fruition. There is yet more to come as it takes time to create and deliver change ofter 10 years of wasteful, unprofessional stewardship of HDC.
Neil WarnerBaker
2023-05-13 23:30:57
Cllr Saggers, don't make me laff, your supposed to be the portfolio holder with responsibility for IT......IT for Harlow! Yet when I informed you that Hggt had done a deal with Kao Data and laid the high tec high speed fibre optics under Edinburgh Way when it was widened ( And the reason why the works took 5 Long years...to the sufference of Harlow motorists) what did you do!!! Nothing!! And in your own ward....those hi speed data cables should have been offered to Harlow businesses in Temple Feild... To give Harlow business some economic advantage...not left buried under the road until some unwanted Eastern Stort Crossing carries them over the Stort to supply those Cables to the Hggt project sometime in the future. YOU ARE NOT ON THE LEVEL....Half cocked...more like
DEC HAN
2023-05-14 05:30:40
Begone all you Conservative MP’S Councillor’s enough of your Blah Blah Blah, Broken Promises/Pledges and Utter Chaos caused by your party resulting in unnecessary hardship for millions, your party is in complete turmoil both locally and nationally GO NOW!!!!!!!
James
2023-05-14 09:43:29
Surely there should now be another local election !!
Nicholas Taylor
2023-05-14 10:13:24
Blow me, 17 hours has elapsed since the last resignation was announced. Readers may remember an article on these pages dated 7 February when six Councillors rallied to support for Cllr Perrin. He has resigned and two of the six have as well. Any more to come?
Voice of reason
2023-05-14 10:33:43
They’ve put a 22 year old sacrificial lamb in charge so they can make even more of a mess of our town, bringing in londons finest unwanted and then nobody to blame when he he is pushed out in a years time.
Michael Hardware
2023-05-14 11:35:35
Neil, what on earth are you talking about? HGGT did no such deal, your post is completely incorrect. And Edinburgh Way delays were caused by utility companies not mapping their services and then taking their own time to come and move them!
Christine Rogers
2023-05-14 13:52:43
Councilors need to spend more time becoming acquainted with their residents, including those who live in flats. How can we vote for you if we don't know who you are?
Pedro
2023-05-14 18:24:07
Have a look at the turnout figures for the last local election, it's around the 25% mark, which goes to show the vast majority don't care a jot about who runs the council.
Neil Warner-Baker
2023-05-14 21:35:06
So Cllr Micheal Hardware! What are you saying? Are you suggesting that "those utility companies" didn't include "high speed data cables destined for hggt?! . Please tell me more...this really should be in the open
David Forman
2023-05-15 08:03:01
Councillor Hardware is correct about Edinburgh Way and unmapped utilities, particularly gas. There were already high speed fibre optics in the vicinity of Edinburgh Way as a result of the old Viatel (which gets to Harlow Town via Epping Green and Sumners West) and the current Global Crossing/Level 3 network (the old Racal rail Comms network updated).
AB
2023-05-15 13:47:56
Resignation of vandals leaving the destruction of the Stort Navigation in their wake.
neilwarnerbaker
2023-05-15 18:39:35
David Foreman, if that is truly the case, then I'm more than happy to offer my apologies to Matt. To give this context, since becoming aware, then asking for information from our cllrs about the dire plans that hggt have for our town ( Eastern Stort crossing etc)...I have been Stone walled by some but not all of the Conservative Party.. I am a reluctant campaigner, But at times my inbox has been filled with snippets of information... That's how I became aware (and appalled) that cllr Hardware is the director of Chelgate and had been working as a paid consultant on behalf of hggt whilst also being a local and County Cllr with responsibilities for hggt ( in my opinion that stinks) I was also informed that another sponsored conservative cllr, this time from East Herts ...Linda Hasey (?) Had done a deal with regard to hi speed internet delivery...maybe my information was incorrect...that is why I asked Matt Saggers For info...which was never forthcoming...I guess it will all come out in the wash...so much for transparent democracy...sigh
Colleen Morrison
2023-07-03 06:49:04
"Let's hope that our councillors can get on with the job that they are elected for, which to my mind is...to help with the concerns of local residents in the wards they represent. Street parking, flowerbeds, the state of our roads and paving..Let us be proud of Our Town again." Neil Warner Baker. I've huge respect for knowledgeable and dedicated Neil WB, who spent hours of his time walking round the River Stort and Latton Island with me, and I second every word he says above. I can assure Neil that this is exactly what's happening in Harlow under Council Leader Dan Swords. I've huge respect for Dan Swords, Harlow's 22 year old Council Leader, who is one of the most inspiring, dedicated and hardest working leaders Harlow Council has ever had. Much respect too for hard working and dedicated Matthew Saggers and for hard working and dedicate Scrutiny Committee Chair, Tony Edwards. Rather than just assure Neil and those who express concerns here: that Harlow's Conservative Councillors are not fighting amongst ourselves, that we have an excellent leader and that restoration of Harlow's existing neighbourhoods is well underway in exactly the meticulous manner in which Neil describes above, I would like to repay Neil's kindness and invite him to come one one of my neighbourhood inspections with me. As Neil knows, I am the Champion for Harlow's Neighbourhoods and I'm out most days inspecting neighbourhoods and reporting the results of my inspections to Dan Swords, who is totally dedicated to using these reports to restore Harlow. That restoration and regeneration is already under way. Neil has my contact details and I look forward to hearing from him.
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