Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Local youth venue with community role in danger

rogue | 12.03.2007 14:54 | Culture | Social Struggles | Cambridge | London

The Square in Harlow is a venue subsidised by Essex County Council (ECC), which has run cultural programmes, "rock school", art projects and even a "film school", for years. It regularly has visitors from the surrounding counties, London, and even further afield. The Council are instituting new policies which will lead to its closure.

SAVE THE SQUARE!
SAVE THE SQUARE!


Besides its community functions, has showcased many years of up-and-coming ( and established) bands of all genres - punk, ska, acoustic, electronic, hardcore, metal, experimental, and indie, as well as drum n bass nights, club nights, comedy nights, and more that I'm not old enough to know about.

The Square is decades old, and has become a cultural institution of the town and its surrounding area. Perhaps most importantly of all, it gives the youth of Harlow something to do, and genuinely helps to stimulate socialisation, creativity and community cohesion - this is not marketing nonsense, I speak as someone who has years of experience as a customer and would be gutted to see The Square go.

ECC are instituting new policies from the 8th April. A document passed on to us by a member of staff shows that they aim to prevent the sale of alcohol inside the building, stop youth work with young people (YPs) under the influence of drugs, including alcohol, and book bands only between the ages of 13-19; one of the representatives of the council even suggested to the staff that they might have to turn away people who were over 19 at the door.

This is clearly ridiculous. The only reason the council could have for showing such a sudden interest in this after decades is that the lease on the building runs out in summer 2008, and when asked about their plans for the building after this, they replied "no comment". The land is a prime location for housing, a car park, or some other form of development, as it is right in the centre of town.

Please help us to fight back against the Council's plans for profit at the expense of the youth. They have supplied no justification for their reasons to staff, and have prevented them from discussing it with customers; furthermore, ECC have been avoiding YPs' questions on the issue, such as claiming that the jurisdiction for this falls under Harlow Town Council, even though the document we received, which was shown to staff in the meeting with ECC's representatives, is clearly labelled "Essex County Council" on each page.

The Square never serves alcohol to underage YPs, and often refuses admission to YPs that it deems to be under the influence of drugs (including alcohol), whether they are underage or not, in line with its own policies. Its staff perform essential youth work with those under the influence of drugs, and its popularity with its target age range (13-19) is booming, so why do the Council need to make alterations that will only turn the Square into a commercially unsuccessful playground?

If you have been to the Square, or would like to lend us a hand in defending our community, please contact any of the below addresses with your thoughts...

The county councillors who are responsible for harlow are shown here...
 http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/dis/guc.jsp?channelOid=14341&guideOid=14337&guideContentOid=14357

and the leader of the council is shown here... (Lord Hanningfield)
 http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/dis/guc.jsp?channelOid=14341&guideOid=14337&guideContentOid=14354

and the chairman of the Children, Young People and Schools Policy Development Group is shown here... (J. Albridge)
 http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/dis/guc.jsp?channelOid=14341&guideOid=14337&guideContentOid=14354

and this is contact information for Bill Rammell, Harlow's Member of Parliament...
 http://www.harlow.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=6867

rogue
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/savetheharlowsquare

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech