We send all our members and supporters very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
We have all had a challenging year and we very much hope that you have kept safe and well. As a Society we have only been able to hold one event in September – the well received walk around Newhall.
We hope that you have found our newsletters and other information we have sent out both interesting and informative.
We will not be holding our AGM in January and it will be postponed until later in 2021. We expect that this will be at some point after Easter when circumstances allow and will let you know when we have a date.
We will be asking for subscriptions in the New Year and hope that you will want to renew.
In the meantime, here are some updates that we hope will be of interest.
We hope for better times in 2021 and wish you a happy, peaceful and healthy Christmas and New Year.
Firstly, a reminder that we have set-up a Just Giving page for donations to raise the funds for a plaque celebrating the Alberni, once the resident quartet in Harlow and a key part of Harlow’s musical heritage.
You can find the fundraising page here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/harlowcivicsociety
Do please share this with others so that we can raise the funds to mark this important group of musicians.
We plan to install the plaque at the ARC in Old Harlow. When we are able, we want to hold a celebration concert there for the plaque unveiling.
The new Harlow Local Plan, over 10 years in the making, was adopted at the full Council meeting on 10 December. This sets the framework for the consideration and determination of all planning applications. This includes a positive vision and the commitment that development in and around our town should follow the principles set out by Gibberd in the planning of the New town. You can read more about the plan on our website here.
We recently learnt of news about developments on the former site of The Square. Our press secretary Barbara Burge has written to Your Harlow asking what has happened to the original commitment that a alternative venue for the Square’s activities would be found – you can read the letter here.
It was recently reported in The Times that Britain’s most powerful supercomputer, whose uses will include drug discovery and analysis of NHS data, will be sited at the KAO data centre in Harlow and is expected to be opened in the New Year. The building was previously one of the candidates for our Architectural Award and is on the site of the former Standard Telecommunication Laboratories where Sir Charles Kao and the teams there pioneered the development of fibre optics and many other innovations. You can read more about this at Business Weekly . You can also read about the neighbouring Harlow Science Park here.
Harlow Town station has been refurbished and has now won an award at the National Railway Heritage Awards. The station is Grade II listed and is regarded as one of the best examples of 1950’s British Rail architecture. The life expired plywood facias have been replaced with glass reinforced plastic in the original green colour. You can read more about this on Your Harlow here and a press release about the awards here.