Happy St George's Day!

We are in Broadwalk this morning, near Boots, handing out St George's day Cards. As I mentioned in my Sunday posting, I am campaigning for St George's Day to be a Public Holiday. After all, we celebrate everything else! Hope to see you - we will be there until 1230.

P.S. Don't forget to sign the petition on the top-right of this blog!

Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon & Sheering. http//roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Fuel for the brain

One of the most interesting chaps in Harlow, is John Curry, Vice Chairman of Harlow Civic Society and renowned cyclist. Every time you have a conversation with him, it is like being fed fuel for the brain. This is because John knows so much about the history of Harlow, its architecture, and does all he can to preserve the Town's unique heritage. You don't have to agree with everything that John says (although much of what he suggests makes sense), but you can't help be drawn to his passion and commitment.

Yesterday, I met with John, in Broadwalk, just by the Trigon Sculpture (By Lynn Chadwick), a great example of the reason why Harlow has now been designated a 'Sculpture Town'. John's tireless work over many months has seen The Trigon view restored. Instead of being obstructed by unsightly poles, and telephone boxes, the sculpture can now be seen in all its glory, as John's constant lobbying has seen the Pole taken away and the BT kiosks moved farther down Broadwalk. Harlow is lucky to have such a man as John Curry. The picture shows John standing by The Trigon, - without unsightly pole!

Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon & Sheering. http//roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Video and pictures showing the history of Harlow

Yesterday afternoon, having a well-earned cuppa at Cllr Lee Dangerfield's home, he showed me a wonderful You Tube video, with haunting music, that shows various pictures of Harlow as it was being built as a New Town. If I am not mistaken, I am sure this film was shown in the Harlow Library a few years back. Lee put the video on the very right side of my blog, so you can have a look at it, just by scrolling down a little.

By chance, I also came across a website which has loads of prints of Harlow through the decades. Some are for sale. Have a look HERE and HERE. I particularly like the early pictures of Broadwalk and the Market. Elsewhere on the site, there are some great old pictures of Roydon High Street too. I love looking at old photographs and these ones show so much that is unique about the past history of Harlow Constituency.




Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon & Sheering.

A Good Saturday

It’s a lovely quiet night in as I have had a long day campaigning. In the morning I was outside Church Langley Tesco’s with local Cllrs Andrew Johnson, Simon Carter and Clive Souter. I had a good discussion with the relatively new manager of Tescos, Mark about the new Wind Turbines. I have had a number of emails about this issue and wanted reassurance. The Manager promise that these Turbines would be silent and were not turbines in the traditional sense- more like revolving lampposts with ears. It is good that Tescos’ is concerned about the environment- as long as local residents are not inconvenienced in the process. Whilst I was at Tescos, I was astonished to learn that of Council rents collected by Harlow Council, the Government take away £13 million for spending out of Harlow! £!3 million!! Imagine what could happen if Harlow Council was able to spend its own money, instead of being forced to hand over so much to Gordon Brown and be spent in Scotland and the North of England.

After Tescos, it was off to Church Langley to do some canvassing door to door. Most residents expressed real upset about the state of the economy – high taxes and high debt. I have promised to raise the concerns of one local resident about allocation to Passmores school. She told me that contrary to previous years, very few children in Church Langley were being offered places in Passmores – this was because of the closure of Brays Grove and the future re-building of Passmores on the old Brays Grove site. I promised that I would take up the concerns with Essex Council.

Before going home I had went to the O2 shop in Broadwalk to try and pick up my blackberry- not ready yet! I also had a look at an amazing new phone, the Sony Ericsson C905. This tiny phone has 8 million pixels camera on it which is state of art. It really is incredible what phones have on them nowadays. Sadly my upgrade isn’t till June, so I will have to wait so I can get this phone for free on my contract! I had to stop at the cafe just opposite Barclays. In my view they make one of the best cups of coffee in Harlow, and it was good to drink my coffee and read the paper and relax a little.



Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon and Sheering.