Essex town not totally tough and mean! (6)
I believe the answer is:
harlow
'essex town' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'not totally tough and mean' is the wordplay.
'not totally' means to remove the last letter.
'tough' becomes 'hard' ('hard' can be a synonym of 'tough').
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'mean' becomes 'low' (I've seen this before).
'hard' with its final letter removed is 'har'.
'har'+'low'='HARLOW'
(Other definitions for harlow that I've seen before include "place in Essex" , "Jean ---, actress; Essex new town" , "FILMSTAR" , "Essex town - American film actress, d. 1937" , "Blonde bombshell" .)