I join about ten residents of Joyners Field this evening in the hall of St James' School to hear more about Harlow Council's plans for the two blocks of flats on the estate.

Unfortunately the budget for the work is less than the council had originally planned, but there will still be quite a lot done, including new front doors, cladding, roofing and moving of the bin sheds.

Residents have a chance to see samples of a front door and different types and colours of cladding.

Harlow Council is setting up a focus group of customers who use the Contact Harlow service to log complaints or pass on messages to the Council.

Would you like to have your say to help the Council make further service improvements?

Regular meetings of the group will be held and members will also get the opportunity to see how the service works behind the scenes.

If you are interested, please call Lynn Corke 446881, email Lynn or or leave your name and contact details at Reception in the Civic Centre.

Harlow Council has received a planning application for permission to change the use of 10 Cecil Court - in the Pegrams Road industrial area - to a pizza preparation and delivery service.

The planning application number is HW/PL/06/00048 and the council officer dealing with the application is Peter Mountsteven. You can view the application from Monday to Friday, from 09:00 to 17:00 at the Civic Centre.

The Staple Tye Ward Advisory Group meets again this afternoon. A lot of issues are raised about particular estates - street sweeping in Longbanks, the crumbling road hump at Woodhill, lorries blocking traffic at The Briars.

We also have a long discussion about the suggestion of bringing in 'introductory tenancies' - not giving new tenants a secure tenancy until they've lived in their home for a fixed period of time, so that they can easily be moved out if they don't pay their rent or cause a nuisance. The group is strongly in favour of this. What do other residents think?

The next meeting of the group is on Tuesday 7 March in the evening at the Staple Tye council office.

An application by T-Mobile for a mobile phone mast on Partridge Road has been approved by planning inspectors, despite having been turned down by Harlow Council.

In submitting its appeal, T-Mobile has reduced the height of the mast, from the original 11.7 metres to 9.7 metres. The planning inspector's decision says this would bring the mast into line with the height of the street lights on Southern Way.

Local residents have said that the phone signal in the area is good, but the inspector states that the new 3G phone system requires a closer network of masts. He goes on to state that the proposed mast meets the safety requirements of the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection.

The inspector has also said that the mast and equipment cabinets must be painted a suitable colour to minimise the visual impact.

Today the local Chinese community are celebrating New Year - and this year it's the Year of the Dog.

We all gather at the Chinese Centre at Lower Meadow ready for the start of the festivities at noon, but the celebrations have hit a hitch. The lion dance master is stuck in traffic on the M11, and although it's been suggested that the order of events is reorganised, some of the older Chinese residents remind the younger ones that it's bad luck not to start with the lion dance.

So it's nearly a quarter to one before the lion dance starts - there's a magnificent firework display, and the 'lion' dances to the sound of drums and cymbals, 'drinking' half a dozen cans of Coca Cola and 'eating' green leaves. Residents in the flats in Lower Meadow can be seen on their balconies enjoying the free display.

When we gather inside the building, a group of girls perform a dance with fans, and there's a Tai Chi dancer too. There are speeches - in Mandarin as well as Cantonese this year - and then an amazing buffet lunch, followed by more Chinese singing.