A LARGE number of police officers were seen in the Felmongers area of Harlow as they continue to search for those responsible for a number of incidents across Harlow.

On Tuesday afternoon, a number of men armed with machetes had a fight in broad daylight.

On Tuesday afternoon, a motorcyclist was found seriously injured in an underpass on a cycle track close to Nicholls Field.

Since then there has been a number of reports of thefts and assaults where the suspects have been described as two males on a motorised bike or similar.

We asked Essex Police for more details re alleged incidents in the Fullers Mead area of Potter Street and the underpass near Netteswell Pond. To date, they have not responded.

We have also seen a report of suspicious activity on First Avenue. We will follow that up.

In light of all these incidents, we asked Essex Police if they would make a senior officer available for interview. To date: none has been made available.

We wanted an interview as we felt there was a need for public reassurance.

We thought that if there is a machete attack a few hundred yards for the school, then they could use our newspaper that has a platform of five million page views year, to reassure people.

The underpass at Nicholls Field is used by a number of school children. We felt they needed some form of reassurance.

But we also had questions re whether they were totally confident that they had control of our streets in Harlow?

There is a perception that it isn’t safe to walk the streets of Harlow or “Safe To Go Stow”.

As there has been no statement re increased visibility, a possible conclusion is that there is no increased visibility.

We are set to interview MP Chris Vince and will be asking him a series of questions.

To be continued.