Latest news

Hello there!

Community engagement for the ‘Your Quality of Life’ project officially finished a couple of weeks ago! You can no longer comment on the survey or map but can still see what others have said. And look out for those voucher winning emails!

We’ve started the process of going through your comments and survey responses. In this newsletter we will briefly sum up some of the interesting findings so far.

It was a real honour hearing views about your quality of life. The fantastic spirit of the people from Harlow, Gilston and surrounding areas was clear to see and with such great communities, the future is certainly bright.

We have also said a farewell for now to our local community researchers Ibrahim and Emma-Lea, who you'll have seen out and about and might have spoken to at a local pop-up. They are shining examples of a younger generation determined to make a positive impact in their local area.

Some numbers:

7,000 people visited the survey website/platform

1,015 contributions were made to the map and survey

553 individuals responded

49 pop up events and drop-ins were held capturing 429 peoples’ feedback/opinions

So, what happens next?

We’re analysing all of the comments on the map and the surveys that were completed.

We’ll then be putting together a report for the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town team, as well as, importantly, a community report later in the year and this will go out far and wide as both digital and printed copies.

The reports will include an overview of what people said they like, dislike and need in Harlow, Gilston and surrounding areas - their general thoughts and feelings, as well as key findings from across the themes of community, health, movement, nature, sense of control, and wonder. It will also include a response from the HGGT team and notes how they plan on taking your feedback on board. Watch this space for more updates!

If you would like to hear about the HGGT project generally and sign up for the quarterly newsletter on all things Garden Town, then please visit: https://hggt.co.uk/have-your-say

Thanks again and all the best,

The Quality of Life Team

Any questions please email: mail@qolf.org

Your map comments!

We’ve had close to 150 comments on the map, thank you to all those who have pinned a comment. It’s not long until we’ll be collecting all your views and reporting back to the Council, so if you haven’t yet pinned a comment and have a spare moment - please do so!

The map and the comments will really help to show the Council where change is needed and how your quality of life is impacted by your local area. So please continue to spread the word and tell your neighbours, friends, family, colleagues, pet cat, dog… Garry the goldfish (you get the picture…) about the project!

What have you been saying?

This week we’ll dive into some of your comments…

Colour key: red: negative / amber: neutral / green: positive

1) Eastwick Rd / Pye Corner - speeding and busy traffic along this road. This makes it difficult for residents to travel safely and sustainably - too dangerous to cycle for example. Traffic from surrounding developments will only make things worse.

2) Harlow Town Park - It’s clear people hugely value the park.

“This place makes Harlow a good place to live. Without it, the opposite would be true. That's how important this park is!”

3) Town centre - this area has the highest concentration of comments. People are concerned with it feeling unsafe at night, that there needs to be more for young people to do here and generally it feels run down. One person recommended:

“I would suggest a big green area in the old market place as the market hasn't been open for a good few years”

Once again we really appreciate your comments and the time taken to give us your opinions. It’s so important local voices and communities are the ones shaping future plans for Harlow and surrounding areas.

We hope you have a great rest of the week,

The Quality of Life Team.

What’s been going on over the last couple of weeks? Well, quite a lot…

Thanks so much to all those who have engaged with the project in any way so far. All comments made in the survey and on the map are highly valued, so please keep them coming! Here’s a brief round-up of what’s been going on:

Harlow Museum Community Celebration Fete

We spent a sunny Sunday at Harlow Museum and Walled Gardens launching our ‘Community’ themed questions. We met so many interesting groups and individuals. Just another example of how vibrant Harlow's community is.

Love Parks Week, Pishiobury Park

We were at Pishiobury Park, Sawbridgeworth, for an East Herts Love Parks event. It was great to see so many young people getting involved with the natural world. We managed to position ourselves between the ice cream van and face painting… proved quite effective…

VCS Community Event, the Water Gardens, Harlow

We were at a voluntary and community sector event last week, in Harlow town centre. It was a great privilege to listen to passionate community members and local residents provide invaluable insights.

A Festival of Care, Harlow Town Park

We were at the Festival of Care last week celebrating care and community in Harlow. Everyone got involved with enjoying family picnics, dancing to music from the bandstand, and browsing the health and wellbeing stalls. This included hearing stories of care, suffering and belonging (performed in a specially created Care House stage) as well as doing some meditation and tai chi: https://www.rhiannonfaith.com/carehouseproject

Next week we’ll be launching our ‘Movement’ theme. The places where we live and spend most of our time really affect our physical and mental health and wellbeing. In turn this impacts our quality of life - as well as the health of the environment. Over the last few weeks we’ve heard many views about the state of transport and local mobility options, so please comment freely on what is an important aspect of life in Harlow, Gilston and surrounding areas.

If you want to find out a little more about the project, play Your Harlow's video interview below featuring Harlow and Gilston Town’s Ione Braddick -

When imagining the future of Harlow and Gilston, and surrounding areas, what better people to ask than local young people? With this question in mind, The Quality of Life Foundation and HGGT team joined the Harlow and Epping Forest Youth Councils to discuss the project and how it could help shape the local area.

The Youth Councils split into workshop groups to share their ideas. Using different digital devices, one group looked at the website, survey questions, and map of the area, to see how easy or difficult they were to use and understand. The other group looked at the flyers, posters, quick response (QR) codes, and incentives to see what would attract young people to get involved.

The groups had a lot of great ideas about changes that could be made. Many of these were about the wording, images and understanding to make everything more accessible and inclusive of everyone. Across all of the groups there were common threads: wanting to see fewer words, having larger text, eye-catching images and colours, and seeing attractive hooks for prizes. Additionally, there were useful questions about online safety and moderating comments.

Thank you to both Youth Councils for their help.