By Bush Fair Councillor Kay Morrison: COVID caught up with me last month, just when I’d thought I’d escaped. It was no picnic. Those who claim it is just like ‘flu have got off lightly …. or their experience of ‘flu has been horrendous. Since…

Dear Sir, COMING to a field near you….. it is now! Even though Epping Forest District Council have not yet finished their most recent consultation exercise with its residents about the final version of it’s Local Development Plan, the developers are pressing on with their…

AS part of our series on what Labour councillors think of the (fully costed) Labour Party plans, policies and proposals, we have been speaking to a number of Harlow councillors. Today, councillor Jean Clark discusses breakfast clubs. Cllr Clark said: As a primary school governor,…

Dear Sir   FOR months in the Council Chamber, we witnessed the Conservatives staunchly defend the contract for the work at Five Acres. Dismissing the legitimate concerns of leaseholders and insisting that that the Council were following due process. Presumably Cllr Simon Carter (the then Housing…

Dear Editor, IT has been a long hard battle, but with our little team of leaseholders we have at last succeeded.  For us it was so obvious right from the start that there was something fundamentally wrong with the whole set up.  The way the…

Dear Editor, I HAVE had experiences of Essex County Council (ECC) staff being ultra slow in dealing with problems.    In two cases the problems have not been resolved over years rather than months! One case relates to two lit ‘road narrows’ signs on the…

HARLOW Alliance Party response to the Epping Forest DC (EFDC) Local Development Plan. Epping Forest District Council has been working on it’s plan for well over four years. The Harlow Alliance Party was the only political party to voice objections to the building of thousands…

Dear Editor, HERE in Harlow we are fortunate to have access to allotments all over the town. I live near Long Ley allotments and I am surprised to see that many of the allotments on the site are empty. Keeping an allotment is great for…

AN open letter to Conservative MPs about the school & college funding crisisahead of this week’s leadership elections. Dear colleagues, We write as leaders of national education organisations across the UK. Between us werepresent and support the vast majority of leaders, teachers, governors, trustees, parents…

ON Saturday, Harlow resident, Rob Bright ran his 52nd parkrun. Anyone who knows Rob and anyone who runs with Rob knows that he gives it the proverbial 110%. Last year, Rob had what at the very least could be described as a health scare. At…

Dear Editor, I NOTICE in the Harlow Times that Councillor Michael Hardware celebrates the population increase from 81,900 to 93,300 between 2011 and 2021, claiming it a sign of how ‘Harlow is a welcoming, friendly place’. How many of these new residents have been forced…

DEAR Editor, I nearly spat out my tea when I heard the Conservative Prime Minister say sorry. I think it might be the first time I have ever heard a Conservative politician apologise for anything! However, she didn’t apologise for tax cuts to the richest…

Dear Editor, THE NSPCC is searching across Essex for volunteers who are passionate about child protection to join us in our fight for every childhood. In 2022 the NSPCC’s ‘Speak out. Stay safe.’ volunteers will be returning to primary schools in Essex, helping us to…

LAST month, I wrote about anti-social behaviour, its effects on the immediate community, and the impact on neighbours directly affected. Those neighbours live in a perpetual state of dread, gradually beginning to suspect that the situation will never improvement. But that’s not the case, is…