Congratulations Harlow Homeless Centre

On Saturday, it was so good to be in the sunshine watching the Rotary Club Abseiling event. This is where a number of very brave people, abseil off the Water Tower in Church Langley, for charity, an event which happens every year.

The event at the Water Tower is organised with military like efficiency, as volunteer stewards ensure that the event runs smoothly. Many local charities and voluntary groups take part, including Harlow Stroke Association, St Clare's Hospice, and Streets 2 Homes (of which I am proud to be Patron). There is also a lovely marquee in which wives and partners of Rotary Club members, sell tea, coffee, delicious sandwiches and cakes.

I was pleased to be able to support Harlow Homeless Centre and Ron Hetem, once homeless, now a volunteer for Streets 2 Homes. Ron works incredibly hard for the Homeless Centre, and does all he can to raise funds, including organising an annual golf day. You can read his story HERE. Ron was going to abseil but had a bad knee, so his place was taken by Geoff.

I am told that the Rotary raises around £500,000 for local charities from the abseiling event which is quite astonishing, particularly in these times of the credit crunch. Those volunteers who abseil, are very courageous. I watched pensioners aged 84 and 94 abseil off the Tower. I got giddy just looking at the people at the top!

Looking forward to next year.

P.S. You can see the video of Geoff's abseil HERE

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

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.