New Harlow War Memorial - Harlow Needs You!

I am really pleased that Harlow Council is working in partnership with the local Royal British Legion to introduce a new memorial to the Netteswell War Memorial garden in the Town Park.

The new plinth will show Harlow’s gratitude to those members of the Armed Forces who have given their lives in conflicts since 1945. The memorial will include Private Robert Foster who died in Afghanistan in 2007.

So both the Council and the Royal British Legion are inviting members of the community to put forward names for commemorating on the new Harlow War Memorial.

The criteria for an individual to be commemorated on the memorial is that they were member of the armed forces killed on active service in a recognized conflict, born in Harlow, and/or had strong links with the town. For example been an established resident of Harlow, been a resident of Harlow immediately prior to service in the forces, been a long-term employee in Harlow or has a family home in Harlow.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I think a great deal of those who put their lives on the line in the Armed Forces, so I will be particularly happy to see this memorial finished with the input of local people. All being well with confirming names supplied with MOD and any remaining family of the deceased then the new memorial should be ready for its dedication on Armistice Sunday this year.

To meet that deadline any names need to be submitted by 31 August 2010. Any names received after that date may not be included in time for this years ceremony, but will be added at a later date.

If you are going to put a name forward, then please provide as much information as possible, including: the service, regiment, name, date of birth, service period, service number and short background.Details of personnel can be submitted online by following this link and completing the on-line form or if you prefer you can send the details to: J. McGill, Property & Facilities Manager, Harlow Council, Water Gardens, Harlow, Essex CM20 1WG

Flying the Flag

I am really pleased that flying over the Civic Centre in Harlow, at the moment, is the English Flag of St George. I am pleased that the council is publicly showing support for our boys as they battle at the World Cup.

Even prouder am I, now that the Armed Forces flag is flying above the Civic Centre, supporting our Boys and Girls battling in a much more dangerous way so far from home.

Ever more bittersweet this lunchtime as I heard of the 300th death our troops have suffered in the conflict in Afghanistan.

We are flying the Armed Forces flag this week to celebrate Armed Forces Day on the 26th June (the day in 1857 of the first investiture of the Victoria Cross) and so we jolly well should.

Regardless of your view on the conflict in Afghanistan or Iraq, I hope we can all agree that those in the armed forces who put their lives on the line day after day in support of the country deserve the countries support!

It is a sad society where some places, towns, people show little or no respect to those who risk their lives to provide freedom to the people of the British Isles, and indeed freedom for our friends in other countries.

That is why people and towns need to make a difference. We can't all be Wootton Bassett, but we need to keep faith with our Armed Forces and make their celebration part of everyday life.

Nothing wrenched my gut quite like my daughter the other month, when in a supermarket and spying a gentleman in Army Dress Uniform said "look mummy daddy its one of the brave ones!"

I hope by the celebration of Armed Forces Day, by big events or just by "Flying the Flag" more young people will grow up with a greater appreciation of what our Armed Forces do for all of us.

In the meantime Harlow Council continues to promote the charity Help for Heroes , as they provide direct support for those wounded in conflict, with a collection box and wrist band sale on our main desk in the reception area.

Harlow leads the way for housing veterans

I got a press release from the government today.

Now my normal reaction at this point would be an urge to bin it!

I actually tend to read with disgust.

Today I saw it was about "housing for heroes" and gladly read on.

It appears the Government has just recognised that there might be a number of members of the armed forces returning from active service or being discharged from the forces following injury, who might actually need support.

So instead of:

Paying adequate compensation to wounded service personnel;

Having a better way of readjusting personnel in their return to civvie street;

Generally improving the housing on military bases in the first place.... I could go on but you get the idea,

Instead of this, they tell local councils to take care of these Heroes.

Well you know what Mr Brown?

We and many council like ours are well in front of you, and we want to care for our Heroes!

I have already blogged about what Harlow Council is doing around this issue here. And we are very happy to be doing it. Just like we are happy to support the local reserve forces.

What makes me mad is that the Government had to be prompted by Councillors in authorities like Harlow, asking the questions of Government departments before they did anything.

But I wont stay mad for too long, because these Heroes need as much help as we can all give.

An evening of Housing issues

An interesting evening at the Civic for me at the Housing Committee last night - as a Substitute for Mrs J (the other Cllr Johnson) who is unwell at the moment and can hardly speak.



Now, housing is not really my specialist subject, but I keep up with what is going on at the committee and read their agendas (if not always with glee!) But I found last night interesting because of the debates that took place, some good news, some really good news and a piece of bad news

Lets go with the bad news first (it helps me cheer you up at the end)

The discussion on "delivering decent homes" focused on Governments targets for council houses, really highlighted how badly Harlow has been treated recently by Gordon Brown and Co. Basically Harlow tenants have been mugged of a million quid!

Our housing subsidy this year shows a "significant reduction" (paragraph 12 here for those who want to see the document)

I asked for more details on this and was told that it would be somewhere between £800,000 and £1,300,000 that we have just lost from this years budget.

And the government had not yet clarified the details. Now remember that we had to set our budget a couple of weeks ago for the coming financial year and a gap this size is significant to our spending plans. Knowing that the new financial year starts in 20 days time, we asked when would the government let us know what the situation was. Sometime either late Spring or early Summer was the answer. What more can I say! Either the government doesn't understand that we have to set our budget while they keep us in the dark or they just don't care!

The Good News? We looked at a "Review of Housing needs and allocations strategy" for Harlow.
With this piece of work we were looking to strengthen the definition of local connection (which aids people in getting a house in Harlow) because previously it's been allowed to be too broad. My colleagues still thought that being resident in Harlow for 6 out of the last 12 months was not really much of a local connection - but we were told that this is Government legislation and we can't make it tougher than that. Shame really.

The really good news is that we added an amendment asking for a review of policy for homeless ex service personnel (who make up about 2/3rds of the homeless population). We may not all agree with the various wars that our armed forces have been asked to fight by this government, but we can surely get behind our troops when they come home. I look forward to seeing the result of this piece of work.