Have your say on culture and creativity in Harlow
Entertainment / Fri 22nd Nov 2024 at 08:18am
HARLOW Council is writing a Cultural Strategy for Harlow. The strategy will set out the council’s vision and ambition for how culture can help to create a better place to live, and how we can make sure that everyone has the opportunity to engage in the cultural life of the town.
We would love to hear from you, to understand what you think about creativity and culture in Harlow, helping us to create a Cultural Strategy that includes local people’s voices and best serves everyone in our community.
PUBLIC WORKSHOP
Join us for FREE family friendly arts and crafts activity and an informal chat about creativity and culture in Harlow with a friendly group from Rhiannon Faith Company.
Sunday 24 November, 10-4pm
Discover Harlow Hub, Harvey Centre
QUESTIONNAIRE
Complete the questionnaire below, designed to capture your thoughts on culture and creativity in Harlow. https://selfserve.harlow.gov.uk/service/Cultural_strategy_public_questionnaire
Everyone who completes the questionnaire will have a chance to win 4 FREE pantomime tickets at Harlow Playhouse this Christmas!
If you need any help filling out this questionnaire, or to request it in a different format, please contact Benjamin Simanowitz on 01279446225 or [email protected].
Thank you for your help, we look forward to hearing from you!
Seamus
2024-11-22 09:52:00
I can only think that our councillors live in lala land, Harlow is not Hollywood. Put police in the town in all corners during shopping hours to renove crime and scooters/bikes flying amongst people. Let market stalls go back to the market for no rent. lower the rents for the stores for a two year kickstart. Make the town car parks either free or just a pound during the daytime. do that as a start because all you are doing at the moment is putting superficial glitter on a pile of poop. You want Harlow to shine? try K.I.S,S. (Keep it simple stupid.
Adam
2024-11-22 11:09:22
How about focusing on industry and getting people in jobs. The council spends far to much on the playhouse nice as it is, it should not be being paid for by tax payers money. The head of the play house gets over 50K per year, it is not something people should be struggling to pay taxes for. I agree with Seamus above get the town growing again.
David Forman
2024-11-22 12:34:05
I'm all for culture, provided that the low paid, pensioners and single parents can afford to access it. All too often, cultural pursuits are the preserve of the more affluent. Culture can enrich the working masses as demonstrated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. The New Deal's cultural activities were intended to create a sense of unity in the country and to make art more accessible to the public. See the FDR Presidential Library article on the Art of the New Deal at https://www.fdrlibrary.org/art-detail#:~:text=Government%20art%20programs%20rescued%20artists,%2C%20prints%2C%20drawings%20and%20sculpture.
Guy Flegman
2024-11-22 17:52:11
The square was a hub of cultural activity in this town for many years. Sadly some one thought they could make more money by doing something else with the site. We once had a world class sports centre and track and field venue, we had an Olympic grade swimming pool, we had a top notch artificial ski slope and we even had a velodrome. All of this have gone as part of the general decline and division of our society. Even our town centres flourished before they started to charge for parking. I suspect this above is just another bit of lip service by some non job department in government that no ever needed or asked for, yet we pay for.
AB
2024-11-23 07:06:54
Bring back a good size-live music venue. Sadly an opportunity to increase the size of the Playhouse to make it a genuine regional centre has been missed.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-11-23 11:20:24
Could not have agreed with you more AB. Despite the assurances given in the past by the Conswervative administration, the so called live music venue in the new building going on the former Occasio House site appears to be nothing more than a room on the ground floor, no stage, no bar and on the plan is shown as a community and commercial space.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-11-23 13:29:20
Typo, meant to say Conservative of course. Just to add, Guy is right of course, there were far more things to do in Harlow in the past when the number of residents living here was much smaller than it is now. With a population in the area expected to be more than double what it was three decades ago, we have a council with little vision if any about what the town needs in the future, relying on bars and restaurants to increase footfall, hence a theatre no bigger than it is now, less and less room for leisure and cultural activities and turning the Town Centre into not much more than a residential estate.
TonyB
2024-11-23 21:39:12
I must agree with Guy Flegman, AB, and Nicholas Taylor. They are all correct in asking for a LARGE Live MUSIC Venue. Some of the Live Music Pubs have gone in Harlow. We have to travel out of town to larger theatres, as the Harlow Playhouse is currently way too small for the 90,000 Harlow population. Any seats past the middle aisle were built to squeeze more seats in, but anyone over six feet would find it challenging to sit for an hour. When or if they build all of Gilston and all of the other villages, the population will exceed 200,000. A new, much larger theatre with access to a dance floor will be needed. Currently, I’ve often seen bands tell the audience to dance and then the shocked look on their faces when they realise the dancing space is minimal, unlike in many other theatres. So, we will have to continue to travel to London, Southend, Clacton, Cambridge, Hertford, or the local thriving Live music town of Ipswich. I can remember one of the Conservative councillors stating that he wanted to keep Harlow money being spent in Harlow, but he is going about it the wrong way, thinking small for today, not for tomorrow when the Harlow area has way over 200,000 people. Conservative councillors voted to sell The Square site to property developers when they were Essex County Councillors and Conservative Harlow Councillors. The new venue to replace the Square will be tiny, serving a population of over 200,000 people. I’m told the fire certificate will allow just 200 people to enter the building squeezed onto a very small site next to the Harvey Centre Car park. Plus, unlike the former Square, it will close at midnight, as the Conservative Harlow Councillors do not want to disturb all the new flats they want to build. Harlow still has some vacant old nightclubs, the old “Highwire” venue owned by Harlow Council and the old disco on Terminus Street, built inside the former Woolworths building next to the bowling alley. The Square was a community-based project run by the community. Four local men stepped up to run it while doing their day jobs after Essex County Council pulled the plug. It was strictly policed. Anyone trying to buy alcohol underage had their pints taken away, and both the person and the person who purchased the alcohol were threatened with eviction from the premises. I only mention this as the same Conservative Essex Councillor's reason for selling the site was, “We didn’t realise the Square sold alcohol”. They must be highly foolish and need to get out more in Harlow. Sadly, Harlow voted for these foolish individuals to run our town.
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