£60m plans for town centre unveiled

Plans by Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation to spend some £60m on transforming the heart of the Garden City's town centre have been revealed.

The Foundation believes that Letchworth Garden City town centre which has fallen rapidly down that national retail 'league' in the past 20 years, is in danger of going into freefall unless major investment is made in the near future. Major plans to invest in competing town centres - £200m in Stevenage, £60m in Hatfield, the proposed Churchgate development in Hitchin and the expansion or redevelopment at Luton and Milton Keynes will only exacerbate the problem.

Director General, Stuart Kenny, who, 10 years ago, spearheaded, on behalf of the Foundation, the major revitalisation programme which gave much-needed new life to the ailing Letchworth Garden City town centre at that time, strongly believes that again the Foundation is "uniquely placed to respond to the new challenge. Doing nothing, or tinkering around the edges will simply not be good enough - Letchworth Garden City deserves more," he added.

The Foundation has held a number of positive meetings to air its proposals with North Hertfordshire District Council, Hertfordshire County Council, the Town Centre Partnership, and individual retailers who will be directly affected, and have consulted with the general public.

Over the past few months, the Foundation has commissioned retail marketing, highways, urban design and other relevant studies and discussed these with key District and County Council staff. The good news for the Garden City is that there was not only consensus regarding the extent of the 'threat' but, more importantly in respect of the solution.

The five key targets of the plan are to provide

• Bigger and better retail units to attract more quality national multiples
• New smaller retail units to support existing and attract new independent retailers
• More and better quality parking with easy access
• An improved environment generally for the shopper
• A 'family friendly' town centre, both in terms of 'offer' and environment.

Area 1 - The Arena Parade/Broadway/Eastcheap shopping area, Town Hall car park the ex Royal Mail Sorting Office area.

A new shopping area is proposed to create a restaurant and food piazza to the rear of the Town Hall, with high quality sitting out areas and a central feature. Towards the southern end of the site will be some 70,000 sq ft of new shopping - with a mix of space to relocate existing retailers and attract new multiple retailers.

To replace the current parking, the Foundation proposes to create under croft (semi-basement) parking and expand the number of spaces. The design would be to a high, modern standard and easily accessible off the Broadway. Pedestrian access to the shops would be quick and easy.

On the upper floors would be a mixture of retail for bigger units and residential units.

Area Two - The Wynd

A leisure and specialist shopping area is proposed, around a central public space. There would be a range of shop sizes to accommodate the existing retail and leisure activities and encourage new ones. A key 'draw' will be a top quality 'play barn' for children. There will be parking for some 350 cars, a redesign of the service accesses, and residential and office uses, are also part of the plans.

Leys Avenue, and Eastcheap:

40º nose in parking is proposed to create additional and easy on street parking with clearly designated disabled and loading bays. The street scene will be enhanced with high quality finishes, lighting, street furniture and hedging/topiary. There will be a 'clean lines' reflecting an Art Nouveau/Rennie Mackintosh style, with the use of steal/aluminium. Particular emphasis will be given to Leys Square which will be extended in order to create a better quality public space, more suitable for markets.

The traffic flow will be reviewed to assess the most effective way of moving traffic around the town centre.

Other areas of the town centre will be reviewed in the longer term. Extensive consultation will take place until early February, 2006 and every householder in Letchworth Garden City is due to receive a brochure in the near future, explaining the project in detail. The feedback will then be analysed.

It is hoped that planning applications will be submitted to North Herts District Council in mid 2006, with work hopefully starting in 2008.

Stuart Kenny explains: "We are hopeful that Letchworthians will welcome and embrace the principles of such substantial and exciting re-developments and let us have their thoughts as we move forward".

"We owe it to the town's current and future generations to provide them with an exciting, viable town centre, including the type of shops they want to frequent, alongside easily accessed, high quality car parking and a high quality environment, appropriate to the age of our Garden City."

In order to complete the improvements in a timescale the public demands, the Heritage Foundation will be seeking The District Council's support on promoting Compulsory Purchase Orders.