As we approach the halfway point since Harrow Conservatives took over control of the Council from Labour, we want to reflect on the positive differences we have made to our neighbourhoods.

In May 2022, we inherited a Council that would have faced bankruptcy in 18 months if things had carried on the way Labour had run them.

Skip forward nearly two years and the Council is in a better position with a balanced budget and increased funding for frontline services.

Below are some of the positive changes we have made to improve Harrow since May 2022:

• Introduced one-hour free parking across Harrow. This has been used over 2 million times, helping residents and businesses in the borough.
• Implemented a free bulky waste collection for every household in Harrow.
• Adopted strong localised planning policies to strengthen the Council’s ability to refuse inappropriate tall buildings from being built in our suburbs.
• Delivered a new user-friendly online planning system. The previous software used under Labour was not fit for purpose and crashed frequently.
• Launched a new consultation platform, called ‘My Harrow Talk’ to make it easier for local people to have their say on proposed Council schemes and projects. We have also adopted robust consultation standards to ensure our consultations are of the highest standard.
• Exceeded our target for responding to complaints within 15 working days. We aimed to respond to 90% of complaints but we have actually achieved 93%. When we took over control of running Harrow Council there had been no proper performance management of complaint handling for years.
• We’ve installed 10 mobile CCTV cameras in hotspot areas for fly-tipping with 5 more cameras due to come online soon.
• Retained ‘Green Flag’ status for 6 of Harrow’s Parks.
• Refurbished Harrow’s public tennis courts to ensure that they are all good quality. Under Labour, many of these tennis courts were in a very poor condition.
• We commenced a £10 million resurfacing programme last summer which allowed us to resurface 60 roads and footpaths on top of our regular repairs programme.
• Held ‘Weeks of Action’ in Edgware, Rayners Lane and Wealdstone, where the Council’s Enforcement Officers worked with the police and other agencies to tackle antisocial behaviour and illegal activities in problem areas.
• Doubled the number of apprenticeships offered by the Council, allowing us to support young people with their employment and skills.
• Recovered £1.4 million from the highways fraud via the Council's insurers.

Made it possible to book multiple visits to the Recycling Centre in Forward Drive, when previously residents could only book one visit per day.