Harlow’s Tory councillors vote for local elections in every four years
General / Wed 26th Jul 2023 at 07:52am
A MOTION for Harlow Council to move to elections every four years has been passed.
The matter was debated on Thursday night. The fourteen Tories present voted for. The nine Labour voted against.
The reasons delivered by both sides can be seen below.
There will be all out elections next year due to boundary changes but to make it permanent still requires a number of bureaucratic hoops.
The Tories will also hope to field 33 candidates for these all out elections. On Thursday night, six did not attend this meeting.
Dan Swords
2023-07-26 08:32:44
To be clear, what was voted for was a public consultation as to whether this is a good idea, not a certainty - which I would encourage all residents to respond to: https://selfserve.harlow.gov.uk/en/service/Electoral_cycle_consultation
Jason
2023-07-26 10:32:03
What a terrible idea
Nicholas Taylor
2023-07-26 10:57:21
How are people not reading yourharlow or do not use social media supposed to find out about this survey? Indeed as yet it is not on the councils website front page. Is this going to be sent to all resident associations for comment or to pass on to their members for example? What about the councils notice boards dotted around the town? How about hard copies being placed in the local libraries?
Mark
2023-07-26 13:41:47
Seems like the Conservatives can't even be bothered to turn up.
Marie
2023-07-26 16:35:57
Cannot understand why anybody would not support this eminently sensible proposal. Annual elections make no sense. It encourages political parties to focus on short-term rather than much needed longer term policies. It is also probably very costly for taxpayers.
Alderman Durcan
2023-07-26 18:07:23
Let’s be really clear this motion was to support the Tory party from scrapping annual election. My argument was very simple,we get pot holes fixed when we have an election. Waiting 4 years will mean deeper pot holes.
James Leppard
2023-07-27 02:46:00
Alderman Durcan is clearly suffering from amnesia. The idea of changing the electoral cycle emanated from his own party! It was his Harlow Labour party that proposed cancelling the local elections this May! Harlow Labour inconsistency and hypocrisy clearly know no bounds.
Tom Compton
2023-07-27 08:10:05
Alderman Durcan says his argument was very simple, as are most of his statements. He tends to forget that the pothole situation that plagued Harlow for many years was never addressed by his Labour administration. Has he not seen the vast improvements across the town recently by the current administration whereas Labour failed to achieve anything. Simple indeed!
Nicholas Taylor
2023-07-27 12:49:26
I am not here to defend Labour of course, but you know as well as I do Tom that the fixing of roads is nothing to do with Harlow Council. The towns four Tory County Councillors achieved nothing when it came to fixing the towns roads, that is where the blame lies.
James Leppard
2023-07-27 15:40:41
Nicholas Taylor, if our four Conservative county councillors "achieved nothing", how do you explain why the town has benefited from a very significant road repair programme that is still ongoing as was announced recently on YH. The difference is noticeable to all.
Nicholas Taylor
2023-07-28 08:00:06
James, I was referring to the years when Labour was in power but we had 4 Tory County Councillors. Years of neglect left the situation where things were so bad that had this current programme not been undertaken then I think it would be safe to say that there would have been an election landslide for Labour next year.
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