"This is a monstrous development.  It has total disregard for Sir Frederick Gibberd's master plan and the uniqueness of Harlow.  Everyone in the Civic Society is just horrified"
John Curry - spokesman for Harlow Civic Society.  Harlow Herald, August 5, 2004

"This is a typical developer fishing trip.  There are hundreds of millions of pounds of profit at stake for the developers. ... This should be a planning system driven application and not developer led"
Paul Sztumpf - Essex County Council Labour leader.  Harlow Herald, August 5, 2004

"We have got to take our fair share of housing.  East Herts has not taken its fair share.  I'm not going to accept the situation where we take on East Herts' extra housing because of the vociferous lobbying from East Herts"
Bill Rammell - MP for Harlow.  Harlow Herald, August 5, 2004

"It would be competing with Harlow Town for investment at a time when regeneration of the town itself should be a top priority"
Deborah Clark - East Herts District Council.  Harlow Herald, August 5, 2004

"The plans are unnecessary.  The Government's own figures show there are 12,500 acres of brownfield in the south-east which could provide 350,000 extra homes.  It's also unsustainable because we don't have the infrastructure"
Robert Halfon - Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Harlow.  Harlow Star, August 5

"There are problems with development across a county border and across a river.  The environment of the area has to be preserved"
Paul Sztumpf - Essex County Council Labour leader.  Harlow Star, August 5, 2004

"Ropemaker has got many advantages.  I am planning to meet with them in the next month "
Bill Rammell - MP for Harlow.  Harlow Herald, August 19, 2004

"We do not get involved in talks with developers.  We believe there should be a barrier between developers and us"
John Reynolds - Chairman, EERA planning panel.  Harlow Herald, August 19, 2004

"They didn't get in any local plans and they were excluded from the draft Regional Planning Guidance.  It wasn't the right place for 4,000 homes and it is certainly not the right place for 25,000"
Deborah Clark - East Herts District Council.  Hertfordshire Mercury, August 20, 2004

“The fact that I am Chairman of the House Builders Federation Planning Committee does not in any way mean that we support or are indeed associated with the Harlow North proposal”
Nicholas H Smith, Chairman of the House Builders Federation Planning Committee, 7th Sept 2004

“I must disabuse you of any notion that I or the Royal Town Planning Institute is 'associating' with the Harlow North proposal”
Michael Hayes, President Royal Town Planning Institute 2004, 12th Sept 2004

"Harlow North will decimate our town. ... I think reading that proposal gives it credence it doesn't deserve.  It's unnecessary, unsustainable and undemocratic"
Roger Beeching - Deputy Mayor of Sawbridgeworth.  Hertfordshire Observer, September 16, 2004

"The BP Pension Fund is once again chasing the fast buck over the fields of Eastwick and Gilston"
Mike Newman - STOP Harlow North.  Hertfordshire Mercury, October 8, 2004

"As one of the 106 representatives on the unelected , unaccountable quango EERA, I will do my best to take every opportunity possible to express my views, which are representative of the area, and that is to reject the whole principle of Harlow North"
Mike Carver - Leader, East Herts District Council, October 13, 2004

"We have won the argument that it should be at Harlow North "
Bill Rammell - MP for Harlow.  Harlow Star, October 14, 2004

"It's not what you might call Heartland East Hertfordshire"
Alan Moore - Head of Planning and Transport, EERA, October 15, 2004

"I wouldn't pretend  to have any idea about what the distribution of housing in Hertfordshire should be"
Derek Langlow - EERA 'community stakeholder' member, and supporter of draft RSS14, November 5, 2004

"Are you suggesting that only people from Bedfordshire should make decisions about Bedfordshire and only people from Norfolk make decisions about Norfolk?"
John Reynolds - Chairman of EERA's Regional Planning Panel, November 5, 2004

"Bishop's Stortford Chamber of Commerce in no way advocates the building of Harlow North"
Les Pinnell - Chairman of Bishop's Stortford Chamber of Commerce, November 4, 2004