Dear Editor,

After the recent Endeavour-House-for-asylum-seekers fiasco, it’s likely that Leader of the Council, Cllr Dan Swords, is breathing a sigh of relief after the furore he ignited showed signs of settling down. 

To recap, we saw Labour’s leader hysterically calling for his resignation and hundreds of concerned residents commenting on social media and Your Harlow.  Cllr Swords then held a crisis interview with Your Harlow having also already committed, in writing, to release all correspondence with the Home Office/its contractor ClearSprings Readyhomes. This was meant to give the public full disclosure on the nature of the Home Office plans he had so loudly and vociferously lambasted on video.  

Two weeks on and Cllr Swords has still NOT released all of the correspondence he solemnly undertook to, so where are we now? Well, left with lots of questions.

We still have no real clarity on what the Council knew and when.

• Did Cllr Swords know, as understood by the media and Harlow’s MP, that accommodation in Endeavour House was being sought for just three asylum seekers sharing a single room? And if he did, why did he present the matter so very differently triggering widespread public alarm?
• If he didn’t know it was but 3, where did he gain the impression significant numbers were intended for Endeavour House? 
• What did he first know of the other 201 asylum seekers apparently enumerated in the Home Office-Clearsprings consultation document? Did he know if they were to be dispersed, rather than located in Endeavour House? 
• The Leader of the Council went on to claim that the Council and Harlow residents had “won a huge victory” over the Home Office, dubiously all within a 24-hour period. Can he prove that the Endeavour House proposal was indeed withdrawn by the Home Office-Clearsprings because of local opposition, or was this due to other factors?
• What part did Endeavour House’s owners play in the alleged Home Office climbdown?
• Did they withdraw any broader plans to disperse up to 204 asylum seekers in Harlow or just the 3 earmarked for Endeavour House? How big then is the “victory” Cllr Swords claims to have won? 

Harlow is owed an explanation as serious questions remain which go to the heart of how our Council is run, whether it is by sober analysis and thoughtful communication, or by impulse, rushes to judgement and political posturing.

As the correspondence has not been forthcoming, a Freedom of Information request was recently submitted to the Council, hopefully forcing full disclosure. We hope this will help answer some of residents’ concerns around these recent, troubling events. we also hope it will help uncover the truth on the Home Office’s apparent plans to put hundreds of so-called “asylum seekers” in Harlow. 

Yours faithfully,  

Scott Hegley

Chair – Reform UK Harlow