Harlow Council has unanimously adopted the Replacement Harlow Local Plan, which sets the council's policies for planning and land use across the town.

Cllr Eleanor Macy chairs the Environment & Community Committee, which recommended the Plan to the full council. Speaking at the full council meeting, she noted that planning inspectors had over-ruled councillors' views on a number of matters covered in the Plan. The council had had little choice but to accept the inspectors' recommendations, and it was therefore reluctantly that she was recommending the revised Plan for approval.

Liberal Democrat council leader Cllr Chris Millington also spoke in the debate. He shared Cllr Macy's view about the extent to which the council had been over-ruled by the planning inspectors, but said:

"We now have little choice; without a Local Plan, planning decisions will simply be taken by inspectors on appeal, and the council needs planning policies within which to work if we are to protect local green space for the benefit of local residents."