A local news website has smashed an online target by more than two million pages views.

Your Harlow has recorded five million page views, surpassing the three million target it had set itself for this year.

The independent site, which has published more than 3,800 stories so far this year, passed 3m views in July and 4m October.

Publisher Michael Casey, pictured, said there had been a “huge spike” in readership this year.

He added: “Since March, we have published over 700 Covid-19 related stories. Yes, some are tragic but many have been life-affirming, shining a light on the heroes of Harlow.

“We realise that just a few years ago, there were still three busy printed newspapers in Harlow. They have all now gone and so, it is down to Your Harlow to keep the residents informed.

“Over the years we have developed a local, national and international reputation with readers all over the world.

“But each new day is an empty canvas and our responsibility is to paint a picture of Harlow on that particular day. The first draft of history as they say.

“Our tag line is ‘one journalist in partnership with 80,000 people’ and so 80,000 thank yous to the people of Harlow for the five million page views.”