Five Reasons to be Proud of Harlow

This has been a very special 10 days for Harlow. For five reasons:

 

SPORTS 

Personally, because of the amazing achievement by Andrew Osagie and Harlow Athletics Club in the Olympics. It was a proud moment, seeing Andrew run the 800m finals, just a split second behind the world record-holder. This is a tribute not just to Andrew but to the Harlow Athletics Club, which is now on the map as one of the great sporting clubs in Britain.

 

SCIENCE

The second reason is that Harlow is not only a place of sporting achievement, but of scientific excellence too. The Harlow Star has reported that the drugs-test centre for the 2012 Games - at GSK - will now be transformed into a world-leading biotech hub. £10 million has already been pledged by the Prime Minister. I have visited this plan myself, and seen the incredible high-tech work that goes on there. This cements Harlow's place as a scientific corridor in the East of England, and will help to bring skills and new technology into our town.

 

SKILLS AND EDUCATION

But we don't just have sporting and scientific success. The Conservative-led Government has now announced a new University Technical College - a pre-apprenticeship school -  that will be for 14 to 19-year-olds in Harlow. 600 local children will soon have the opportunity to study high-tech vocational qualifications in medicine and biotech, as well as Maths and English A-levels. This will fasttrack them, on a conveyor belt to jobs of the future. It is something i have campaigned very hard for over two years, along with Harlow College and Anglia Ruskin University, as well as top industry sponsors including Pearson UK, Raytheon, and GSK. The £10 million pound initial funding will go into the Harlow College campus - recently confirmed as the best college in not just England but the whole country. Doors will open in September 2014.

 

BUSINESS

It is not just sports, science, and skills. Harlow is open for business as well. Not only do we now have the highest business growth in the UK, but the Conservative-led Government has awarded our town "Enterprise Zone" status as well. This means superfast broadband, lower taxes, and investment in our infrastructure and roads. (E.g. £3.5 million has already been announced, to upgrade Edinburgh Way.) The Enterprise Zone will be a huge magnet for jobs and growth, and should create 5,000 extra jobs in the area.

 

CULTURE

Finally, Harlow has long been an official "scuplture town", because we have some of the finest visual and public art in the UK. It is a credit to the town's designers and arts societies - especially Gatehouse Arts, the Gibberd Gallery, and Parndon Mill, which are all thriving. Hundreds of residents have been flocking to exhibitions in these galleries in the last few months, proving that Harlow is rapidly becoming the cultural capital of the East of England.

 

For sport, science, skills, business, and culture, Harlow is the place to be. We should be hugely proud of this - especially Andrew Osagie and Harlow Athletics Club - and shout from the rooftops about what our town has achieved.

 

p.s. On top of the extra £24 million already allocated for protecting our local NHS, Harlow patients who use dialysis will now benefit from a new renal unit. The two new units should be available for use by Harlow patients from January 2013. This is excellent news for people who have had to travel three times a week for their dialysis and who can spend many hours travelling and waiting for hospital transport. To have services on Harlow's doorstep will be of great benefit to local patients and their families alike.

This article was originally written for the Harlow Star (16 August 2012). 

by Robert Halfon MP - Working Hard for Harlow.

Harlow Olympic Torch Day

A crazily fantastic day in Harlow yesterday. I was out in the Town Centre from 0600 to get a good vantage point to watch the Olympic Torch arrive. There was such a great atmosphere it felt like a carnival.
Huge congratulations to the police, emergency services, and especially Councillors and Officers,  many of whom had been up from 2am to get everything ready.
Hope you like the pics. The ones with me are with Wenlock, Vanda, local residents and Harlow Rock School.

The amazing Harlow Festival

Press Notice:

The Harlow Festival 2012 is a celebration of arts, culture, heritage and music across Harlow featuring almost 40 events organised by local community groups and professional artists, offering drama, music, dance, visual art and film productions or activities.

The festival has also enabled local groups to work collaboratively together, including Harlow Ballet and the de Merc Chamber Choir, and the Efua Sey Cultural Academy with Hare Street Primary School.

Harlow Festival ends on Sunday, May 27, with Sparks Will Fly, a day of activities in Market Square to celebrate the approach of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This is an amazing festival and it celebrates everything that is good about Harlow.

It is incredibly exciting to have the festival in the run-up to the Olympics. It is no wonder that Harlow is becoming the Cultural Capital of the East of England and I congratulate everyone who is involved with this fantastic project.

The festival also features Make a Bug workshops at Science Alive bringing arts and science together while an African Film Festival at St John's ARC brings memorable Africana documentary film-making to the town for the first time.

A dramatic retelling of the heritage of the town can be seen at the Playhouse through the eyes of theatre company Razed Roof, and to celebrate the town's Sculpture Town status there are tours throughout the month by minibus, bicycle and foot!

Jazz favourites Head South visit Marigolds Jazz Club whilst the Harlow Writers Workshop launches its latest anthology.

There are also jubilee celebrations, art exhibitions including 'Harlow through the eyes of the artist' at the Gibberd Gallery, and drama and dance including the music of Walt Disney from New Edition and the Karen Chapman School of Dance.

Harlow Arts Council with the support of sponsors Harlow Health Centres Trust and Attwaters Solicitors, and Essex County Council, has awarded grants and support to participants of the Festival and the grand finale Sparks will Fly in Harlow.

Festival brochures are available from Harlow Playhouse, Harlow libraries and arts venues across the town, or by visiting www.playhouseharlow.com.