A SURVEY conducted by the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) magazine The Planner found that 87% of planners feel social media is fuelling misinformation around local planning issues. Planners are finding themselves the targets of online trolls as a result of this misinformation. Survey respondents…

THE LEADER Of Harlow Labour has slammed the Conservative government’s budget. Councillor Chris Vince said: “The Conservative MP for Harlow praising a Conservative government’s budget comes as no surprise.  If you search ‘Robert Halfon praises’ on YourHarlow you will find he has done just this…

PARKING charges at country parks in Essex are set to rise by up to 56% in the hope of raising an addition £100,000. Fees needed to increase to cover costs associated with the operations of the car parking facilities, Essex County Council said. It will…

THE local roads maintenance backlog in England and Wales has hit a record £14bn, an increase of 11% reports Highways Magazine. After punishing levels of inflation this year, the shortfall between current carriageway funding levels and what is needed to prevent further decline, jumped by…

HARLOW MP Robert Halfon, has welcomed the Government’s new plan to toughen sentences and ensure domestic killers spend longer in prison. New legislation to create ‘aggravated offences’ will ensure the cruellest abusers spend longer in jail, delivering justice for victims and their families.  This new…

AN OLD Harlow school has applied to move a double decker bus into their school grounds in order to use it as an extra classroom. Fawbert and Barnard Primary school on London Road, has submitted their plans to the Harlow Council planning portal. The application…

A NEW approach to boosting economic growth by supporting local businesses to expand and a focus on making the case for more investment in order to position the town as a destination for employers to relocate is set to be adopted. This Thursday’s (23 March…

A BLUE plaque has been unveiled at St Mary’s church in Little Parndon in memory of West Indian slave Hester Woodley. In a moving service, Reverend Jokey Poyntz managed to bring together many themes in Hester’s life and legacy. Not only from the eighteenth centre…

HARLOW Chorus is singing one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most gripping choral masterpieces this spring. The performance of the Mozart Requiem, in association with leading professional soloists and the British Sinfonietta, will take place on Saturday 15 April at 7.30pm at Chingford Parish Church, E4…

A HARLOW man has starred in ITV’s Saturday evening talent show Starstruck. Starstruck is a singing competition show where the contestants sing as their idol and battle it out against others singing as their idol. Ryan Donkin performed as Frank Sinatra singing his version of…

ONE of the UK’s leading respiratory doctors has raised the alarm about the exploding popularity of vaping among teenagers, saying that without urgent regulation a generation could end up with long-term addictions and lung damage reports The Guardian. Dr Mike McKean, vice-president of policy for…

A PLANNED development for 40,000 square metres of offices and warehouses could create nearly 3,000 new jobs, according to a planning blueprint approved by Essex councillors reports the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme. Members of Epping Forest District Council’s cabinet said at a meeting last night…

OVER 6,600 Essex residents have currently signed up for Solar Together Essex, a group buying scheme for solar panels and battery storage. This is the fourth time that Essex County Council has run the scheme and the most successful to date.  By using the buying…

A DEDICATED and experienced midwife will retire from The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) at the end of March after clocking up an astonishing 46 years’ service. Andrea Brewis, bereavement review team lead, began her general nurse training at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Epping…