News from Harlow Council: Harlow Council service provision - Monday 6 February 2012
Despite the severe weather
conditions across the country most Harlow Council services are unaffected with
bin collections taking place and priority given to gritting.
Harlow Council Leader, Councillor
Andrew Johnson, said: "Council staff
and contractors are working hard to continue providing services
to
minimise disruption for residents. The
Council has a stockpile of grit in preparation for bad weather so street
cleaners were out on Sunday and today gritting to ensure that the main public
areas are safe for residents. Waste and recycling collections could face some
disruptions due to icy conditions but we will work hard to catch up as soon as
possible. Residents are advised to visit our website www.harlow.gov.uk for the latest
information."
The service provision for today is
as follows:
Waste and
recycling collections – collections are taking place and
the crews are working hard to try and complete their collection routes.
Residents are advised to leave their bins out if they are not collected as the
crews will be working to catch up as soon as the conditions improve.
Gritting
– street cleaning has been suspended
while street cleaners continue to grit priority areas like the town centre,
neighbourhood shopping areas, sheltered housing complexes and health centres.
Harlow Council has 80
tonnes of grit in preparation for cold
weather (see attached photos). The main roads in Harlow are gritted by Essex County Council for more
information visit: www.essex.gov.uk/winter.
Contact Harlow
and Civic Centre– all services are operating as
normal.
Pets'
Corner – gritting has taken place to
ensure this service is open.
Leah Manning
Centre – there is a reduced service at the
centre. Service users are not being collected today due to icy roads. However,
staff are out visiting people to help with collecting medication or essential
shopping.
Parndon Wood
Crematorium - Westerleigh arranged over the
weekend for a snow plough and has been working to clear roads within the
grounds. Services have continued as normal at the chapel today, and cemetery
roads will be cleared to allow burials arranged this
week
» Read More
News from Harlow Council: Housing developments will create new jobs and new homes for local people
SEVENTEEN eyesore garage
sites in Harlow are to make way for new housing
under regeneration plans given the go ahead by Harlow Council.
At last Thursday’s (26
January 2012) Cabinet meeting, the Council agreed to start the process of
disposing of sites to private developers and housing associations. The Council
hopes developers* will build over 70 new homes which will be for outright sale,
shared ownership and for rent to people on the Council’s housing register. The
Council is insisting that developers provide new building apprenticeships and
other learning opportunities for local residents.
The garage sites**, which
are over 40 years old, are either currently derelict or underused and attract
anti-social behaviour, vandalism and fly-tipping affecting local residents’
quality of life. Residents in the areas are being consulted on the future of the
sites and the final plans will be subject to planning
permission.
Councillor
Clive Souter, Portfolio Holder for
Housing, said: “These new housing developments will create new jobs and new
homes for local people. We want to see the developments provide a good mix of
housing which includes homes built for local people waiting on the housing
register. Creating apprenticeships – where young people help build these new
homes – is also something we will be asking developers to sign up
to.
“Many of these areas are
sitting derelict or are underused attracting anti-social behaviour and we think
the best use of these sites is to provide additional housing to regenerate these
areas. We have good examples of where this has worked well like at Mia Court which
replaced a garage block in Ryecroft.”
*The Council is set to
advertise the sites as a package on the open market in spring 2012. All money
raised from the sale of sites will be reinvested into the Council's capital
programme which pays for maintenance and building
projects.
**The sites are at:
Arkwrights, Bushey Croft, Chippingfield, Church Leys, Collins Meadow, Fesants
Croft, Felmongers, Halling Hill (2 sites), Hookfield, Nicholls Field, Milwards,
Stackfield , The Hides, The Hill, The Readings and Woodleys. Nine of the sites
have already been demolished. Please see attached photos of the former garage
blocks at Bushey Croft and the Hides. Both of these sites have been demolished
and will now be disposed of as part of the plans.
» Read More
Harlow Foodbank
Harlow Foodbank are running low on the following food items and asking people in the community if they would help by donating one or more in support of our work.
Food items:
- Tinned Sponge Puddings
- Tinned Meats
- Sugar (500 gram & 1kg)
- Long Life Milk & Long Life Fruit Juice
- Instant Mash Potato
Client referrals to the foodbank are up by 35% this year and we are currently feeding an average of 187 people each month. From April 2009 until December 2011 we fed 4,390 people with emergency food and we now need 1.7 tonnes of food each month.
All donations can be delivered to LOKnSTORE, Temple Fields, Edinburgh Way, Harlow 7 days a week or ring our office on 01279 724515
» Read More
