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"Stupid, stupid Harlow Council"

Q. How do you ruin an already over crowded town centre even more?

A. Putting as many houses, a sports centre, and a football stadium in the smallest space possible, which just so happens to be on the small field between my house and the town.


This is just ludicrous. They want to turn the sports centre AND swimming pool into houses so that more dimwits can spread themselves about this dumb ass town, and they want to build a football stadium and sports centre on one of the smallest fields in the town. The site designated for the football stadium is Barrows Farm. I used to play there as a kid, until it became part of the college - then they knocked it down and used it for aspiring builders to practice building walls on. I mean, the site is about 50m by 50m - how are they going to put a football stadium on that, without overlapping onto the main road and the college? It's impossible, and stupid because it's already a built-up area!

On top of that, they want to put a sports centre onto the field next to it (which is right behind my house, next to a school). It's going to be a nightmare. Building the new school there was a nightmare and that's tiny. Having a massive f**k-off sports centre and football stadium is just ridiculous considering the type of area it is already. If they want to ruin Harlow anymore, the council are going about it the right way. All my childhood memories belong to that field. Football matches, building snowmen, play gun fights, wrestling tournaments - it's a legendary field. I can't believe they want to develop over it - it's like the plot to a Disney film!

The weird thing is that they haven't mentioned building a new swimming pool to replace the one they're knocking down. I don't often go bathing with the other scum-buckets of this town (breathing the same air is bad enough), but I can appreciate that people do use it, and taking it away is a bit unfair. Sure, someone did put razor blades in the tubes, and they were never used since, but I used to go swimming there as a kid and it's alright.

So that's the sports centre going, and re-appearing behind my house, the swimming pool going and not coming back, more crappy council housing turning up by the town park, and a football stadium blocking my way to the town (and my view of the sun). I am not a happy man. Other "successes" the council have worked this year are the partial closure of the Square (a great venue for bands and music lovers) and the threat of closing the Playhouse. They built a sodding great shopping centre that's a massive blot on the lanscape (huge, red TKMAX logos anyone?). The hospital has 1 star status from recent health reports, and there are about 5 nighclubs within 100m as the twunt flys. It just spirals and spirals...

Oh, and I do get to attend a meeting to discuss the proposals, but I doubt my childhood memories are worth much against the millions of pounds this will generate for Harlow council to spunk elsewhere.

my nan and my aunts and uncles live in Harlow..ive just come back from there!

Um, all three of the things you mentioned are no longer active. Quasar was turned into a gym about 5 years ago and the ice slope is now a big pile of mud. The Square closed down for about three months, it's re-opened now but there hasn't been anyone good playing for ages and ages.

But on the plus side... more nightclubs!!!1

Got to say, the only things which have brought me to Harlow in the past have been the ice slope, Quasar and The Square (to see a few mates in band from my town in a general show of support, Antilectual). I go with Stortford or Cambs for most of my "big outings" (yes, Saffron walden is that dull) now, though we keep planning a return to Quasar one day.

To be honest, I'd be glad of any sort of development around here, we have 2 sports centres and nothing else, just a load of houses...

I also thought that it was a private business, but I think the council either bought it of them or kicked them off the land, a thing which brought people in as well, what was the point.

Yeah, the ski slope was another huge blunder. Was that council-run, or privately owned? Either way, it kinda made Harlow seem a bit better for a while...until it shut down. I remember ski-bobbing, and learning t osnowboard there - was kinda fun. And what is it now? A big pile of mud, that collapses a bit more when it rains. And the ground where the school they knocked down near my house was meant to become houses, but it's been waste land for about 15 years.

I think the council also did the same or plan to do the same with the old skiing place, that was a good form of entertainment and they took it down for a plan for houses, I would of thought they would have realised that places like this get people in. And by ripping them down and replacing them with houses kind of cancils each other out.

I think quite a lot of people on this site come from the black hole, or near it. It's not unusual because the Sawbridgeworth store was the original, and people from Harlow spend all day playing computer games and surfing the internet after collecting their cheques from the Dole office.

I was just wandering because I live next to it in Sawbridgeworth.

Well, duh.

Off the topic, sorry, you live in Harlow?