Dear Editor,

THE Harlow Alliance Party was set up in 2018 primarily because a small group of residents were very concerned that Harlow Council was failing to inform and consult with residents about issues which affected where they lived or worked.

Building on the towns green spaces and planning issues come to mind. The Party had hoped that with the elections of 2021, the Conservative Party would make efforts to change the way that the council interacted with residents, but sad to say that all to often they have turned out too be even worse than Labour.

Readers of yourharlow and those looking on the councils website will have read what the council is doing to make improvements across the town. But what of news about the biggest changes in the way that Local Government is organised in Essex since 1974?

This issue was raised with the Leader of Harlow Council at the Cabinet meeting held on 12 June by the Deputy Leader of Harlow Alliance who pointed out that nothing on this subject had appeared in Harlow Times or on the council’s website. The Leader’s response was that information had appeared on on-line platforms (who knew?) with a copy in the Civic Office (who goes there these days) and in libraries (who knew?).

So, who in Harlow knows that a new website was launched on 14 August by the Greater Essex Councils which provides a wealth of information on the reorganisation of councils in Essex or that the Local Government Association has also launched its own website? Virtually every other council in Essex has information, often on its home page about these two new websites but you will not find anything about these on Harlow Council’s. Other councils have gone even further, the residents of Rochford Council for instance are able to participate in a survey, running from 5 August until 1 September and send in questions to the council, the residents of Maldon were invited to participate in a survey running from 25 June until 20 July and those in Thurrock from 16 July until 27 August with the council going even further by holding a public meeting on 19 August.

In the summary section of Grant Thornton, Institute for Governance report dated March 2025 it states that “Local Leaders must ensure the public can share and inform decisions on their future governance. This should involve consultation with a wide range of communities and stakeholders through mechanisms such as focus groups and citizen assembles”. The fact is, there is no evidence of this in Harlow.

Whatever changes are made in two years time, they will fundamentally affect the way that residents across Essex are governed and this will be felt even more so in Harlow without a Town Council or Parish Councils. It seems that yet again, we have a council who wants to keep its residents in the dark until it is too late to have any say on how we are governed in the future..