At the beginning of April, Harlow Hive had a stall outside the back of Harlow Library, with the aim of speaking to people about council housing repairs, sharing what Harlow Hive is about and sharing our Communitree. It’s here that we met one of the residents and heard some of the issues that had been going on.
Harlow Hive then invited residents to a meeting, with the aim of bringing them all together to find out what was going on and what they wanted to happen.
We helped residents put together an email which they said they wanted to send to their local councillors (Cllrs Durcan, Hulcoop and Clark); Leader of the Council Dan Swords, Portfolio Holder for Housing David Carter, Chris Vince MP and Stella Creasey MP (as one resident had been placed in Redstone House by Waltham Cross), and YourHarlow. This email detailed some of the issues in the building and requested a meeting between recipients and residents.
With a response from YourHarlow, we arranged a meeting with residents. You can read the resulting article here.
Residents received a response from Chris Vince MP’s office to say they were working with Harlow Council. Residents have told us that his office has checked back in with them to see how they are doing, regularly over the past few weeks.
In putting together their article, YourHarlow contacted local councillors for comment. On the back of this, Harlow Hive contacted each of the councillors to ask for a meeting. Councillor Durcan said he was aware there had been issues in the building for some time and didn’t not understand why residents didn’t attend councillor surgeries at Harlow Library. He offered to meet with the residents that Sunday but residents were unavailable.
Councillors Hulcoop and Clark then met with residents on the Monday. Cllr Maggie Hulcoop said it was “The worst case I have heard in my 27 years of being a councillor”. They the told residents they would seek advice from Harlow Council’s legal department and ask Chris Vince MP to meet with residents, as his office has more legal powers.
We chased this up a week later, but there had been no progress.
On asking again whether we could arrange a meeting with the residents, Dan Swords detailed that Harlow Council were working with the landlord and using every legal power.
Today, 12/05/26, we met with some residents at Harlow Playhouse. They were waiting here to find out where they would be going next – having spent since 8th May in hotels in Harlow. We were there for four hours, slowly watching residents head into cabs to meet officers or landlords with keys to properties – some furnished, some not. From what we saw, the Harlow Council officer was excellent. Unfortunately, one resident still finished the day in a hotel.
By the end of the day, every one had a roof over their head, if not a bed to lay on. This is extra frustrating because they have furniture – it is sitting in Redstone House. They landlord is set to let residents return to Redstone House on the 19th to collect their furniture – but take it to where? And how?