Harlow Council leader stands by administration’s record following fiery meeting
News / Tue 29th Oct 2024 at 11:19am
THE LEADER of Harlow Council, Dan Swords was in confident and combative mood at the most recent cabinet meeting on Thursday night.
He was insistent that the agenda items on a whole raft of issues from finance,, public safety to debt write offs shine a light on a high performing council.
He dismissed criticism by the Harlow Labour group as typical of “socialism”.
In his office, he has a clock that counts down to the next district elections in Harlow. It sits at 555 days until May 2026. In many ways, councillor Swords and his fellow Tories will be judged then
On Friday morning, we sat down with councillor Swords to discuss a number of issues that were aired at the meeting.
Peter Henegan
2024-10-29 14:32:58
A good interview from Dan. I like that you refer to residents rather than just tenants. I also like that you are looking to improve aspects of the town and that the Harvey centre is contributing. And of course I Iike that you committed to freeze our council tax for 3 years at the May hustings. I wish your County colleagues came across with the same level of dynamism , perhaps we would then get our cycle tracks maintained. Looking to the May 26 local elections, usually the sitting govt loses council seats in mid term so we may have a local tory council for some years yet.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-10-29 15:52:32
As many of us have always thought, this conservsative administration is all about smoke and mirrors. 1) For surplus read underspend, money which was set aside to do a job but has not all been spent. 2) Tenants not satisfied with the overall service running at 32.2% 3) Void periods at 21 days when during the period 2010 to 2020 was just 16 days. 4) Regeneraion in the Town Centre includes millions of pounds on new paving, seats and trees. Try asking passers by what they think, I have, they think it is a complete waste of money at a time when the country is skint. 5) It is now 9 months since the claim the council had bought the flats at Burnt Mill. How much income has been lost since then? I wonder if a "few weeks" will take the non-occupation to over a year? 6) As for the Harvey Centre, perhaps someone can point me in the direction of where I can find details of the costs and income recorded in council minutes. Lastly, Cllr Swords says he is running the council. No proffesionally qualified Chief Executive or Directors in post, it quite simply beggars belief .I look forward to his clock ticking down to the next election.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-10-29 16:32:57
To add to my previous comment, the biannual surveys of council tenants for the years 2016 to 2020 showed tenant satisfaction running at 88% compared with the most recent figure of 67.8%.
Dandy
2024-10-29 17:21:19
Nicholas Taylor, you seem to like your figures so maybe you could help us all out? What percentage of ''tenants'' pay full rent and council tax, out of their own hard earned in this town? I do find those that get for free whine most while not or only partially contributing. How many decades under a Labour run council has the town centre been a mess with nothing at all done? I am not biased for the Conservatives but at least they have made a start!
gary roberts
2024-10-29 17:27:25
Did the editor think Dan Swords wouldn't justify his nonsense. Arrogance of the young Conservative governed by BS.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-10-29 18:34:06
Dandy, the information I give in any of my comments are all in the public realm, usually within the councils own Harlow times. The question you ask is not contained in this journal and would have to be the subject of a "Freedom of Information" request. I have to say that from my expereince of 44 years in council house managementI those that are paying full rent are much more likely to complain about the services they receive compared with those who pay much less.
Simon
2024-10-29 19:19:21
Socailsm or capitalism are not the answer, Chomsky could teach you a thing or two. However, using these words without knowing their meaning shows a lack of education. Dan should not use words he doesn't know the meaning of. He should also know that the NHS is a socalist concept and we do know that Tories hate that.
Nostradamus
2024-10-29 21:44:06
All fur coat...
surrinder
2024-10-29 22:04:56
Nick Taylor is a typical bureaucrat., All that counts is outputs: the results; the performance. He and the Labour opposition are only interested in hiring highly paid bureaucrats without any performance accountability. Dan Swords is right: it is results that count. The rest is nonsense.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-10-30 11:24:13
Surrinder, you are quite right that all that counts are outputs and I have demonstrated time and time again that this Conservative and indeed previous Labour administration are failing to deliver for the residents of Harlow. Every council indeed any business needs staff who can deliver, at the momement we have Councillors running the council with no experience or qualifications for the services they provide and of course many cannot be "fired" for another 3 plus years until they are next up for election, unlike officers who can and are fired at any time.. To date after over 3 years in charge, not a single council house has been built, the Town Centre looks like a bomb site, the rest of the town looks in a worse state than it has ever been, most council homes have not been externally repaired and painted for decades and trees remain untouched causing untold problems for residents. It is not about bureaucracy, it is about having enough staff to get things done.
Surinder
2024-10-31 05:08:57
Nicholas Taylor, you have just contradicted yourself completely: you said nothing was done to housing for decades - when the Council had CEOs, Directors, etc. You also will have seen all the Council house building work in Staple Tye and works in the Town Centre. Of the administration were so bad, how could they be nominated by the independent Local Government Association for award of 'Most Improved Council'. Just how good were these senior officers who are no longer there? Do you know how productive they were? Judging by what you have written, their outputs left much to be desired.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-10-31 12:28:52
Surinder, I would firstly say I am in no way defending Labour in Harlow, they are just as bad as the Tories.To put it as plainly as I can, at the highest level in all manner of ways Government (polititions) determine how much a council can spend. Poititions (our councillors) set policy and how the councils finanacial cake should be divided up. Officers are then employed to make those decisions work. In view of the survey report it makes you wonder how the council ever won any accolades. As for the house building programme, the Tories claim to be building 103 homes "this year" when in fact just three sites have been started, some 44 homes and the first of these will not be finished until late next year. Smoke and mirrors.
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