A CAMPAIGN to save the closure of a large number of garages in the Mark Hall area of Harlow continues.

Green Party member Julie Taylor asked a number of questions to the leader of Harlow Council, Dan Swords at Wednesday night’s Cabinet meeting.

Ms Taylor asked:

Historically, when the Council’s Garage Department has intended to demolish council-owned garages, an entry has been submitted to the planning portal for the Planning and Building Control department. For example, reference HW/DEM/21/00469 relates to the proposed demolition of garages in Arkwrights.

There are currently numerous proposals for garage demolitions across the town, yet no corresponding public entries appear on the planning portal. This has removed the ability for affected residents to comment or to highlight the hardship that the loss of their garages would cause.

While demolition may fall under permitted development rights and therefore not always require a full planning application, maintaining a public paper trail that sets out justification and key details is an important means of communicating plans with residents and improving transparency.

When was this vital part of the process omitted, why was this decision taken, and by whom?

Reply from Councillor Dan Swords (Leader of the Council):

Thank you for your question. You are right in your assertion that the majority of demolitions of garage blocks forms part of permitted development and therefore, does not require such notices.

However, we have always been in direct contact with potentially impacted
garage tenants.

We have recently thoroughly reviewed our process involved in delivering our Open Parking Programme which is creating 1,000 new parking spaces across the town and I am confident now that all appropriate steps are in place to inform residents accordingly.