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Nearly £40,000 was awarded to local causes through our grant funding this month. Here’s our round-up of the people we are supporting…

In October 2011, our Small Grants Committee awarded a grant of £500 to aspiring Letchworth Garden City teenage artist, Hannah Whittall towards the costs of exhibiting her work at Gaudi's Casa Batllo Museum in Barcelona.

Here's our round-up of the events over the coming week, compiled by the Local & Tourist Information Centre, also available in The Comet. For more information visit the Local & Tourist Information Centre's website here.

Plinston Hall, funded and run by Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, is making preparations ahead of a planned re-launch. Customer research is now underway, with the results helping to define the nature of the refurbishment and Plinston Hall’s future offering.

Plinston’s live events programme ended this week with some private hire functions continuing until March. The team has worked hard to help the clubs and societies relocate.

As proud sponsors of the Letchworth Garden City Eagles Football Club, we recieve regular updates from club chairman, Tony Eden. Here's our January update...

Ok, so here comes 2012. Forget the January blues, here's our compilation of ten things for you to look forward to throughout the year, enjoy!

We often receive enquiries around this time of year about the safety of the roads in Letchworth. We are happy to help with these enquiries; however these generally fall within the remit of Herts Highways.

If you would like to chat to someone about gritting or pot holes on roads in Letchworth over the winter holidays, it may be best to contact Herts Highways on 0300 123 4047.

We caught up with GB Bobsledder Dave Smith, a Letchworth resident who explains why he chose bobsleigh for a career, how our £1,000 grant will help compete in the World Championships and why he thinks rollercoasters are dull!

We welcomed a new jewellery shop into Letchworth Garden City on Saturday (3 December) with our Chairman, Colin Chatfield officially opening the store. Orga, which sells, buys and repairs jewellery, is run by John Nash who brings over 19 years of experience working in the jewellery sector.

The store has moved into 11 The Arcade, our covered shopping precinct which we refurbished back in 2009. Colin said: “It is great to see an exciting independent business join the town’s diverse mix of retailers. In tough economic times this is fantastic news for Letchworth Garden City.”

Over £6,700 was awarded to local causes through our grant funding this month. Here’s our round-up of the people we are supporting…

David Smith, a member of the British Bobsleigh Team and Letchworth resident, has been boosted by £1,000 towards his £5,000 2011/ 12 training programme. David hopes to compete for Team GB at the 2011 World Championships and the 2014 Winter Olympics.

19 Letchworth-based groups shared £3,188 towards Christmas lunches to be enjoyed by 802 people this December.

Staff from across our organisation are taking turns to meet and greet visitors at our new ‘Community Hub’ based at 43 Station Road.

Join us this Saturday (26 November) as the Town Centre Partnership turn on the Christmas lights for Leys Avenue, Eastcheap and Station Road with plenty of festive activities.

The fun kicks off at 12.15pm with Santa’s arrival, followed by live entertainment until 5pm, when the lights, funded and set up by the Heritage Foundation, are switched on.

Our Town Centre Consultation Team will be in Leys Avenue throughout the day, on-hand to answer any questions you have on the options for The Wynd and ideas on the wider town centre. Pop down and share your views with us.

Over 200 children from five local primary schools took part in the annual ‘Open Doors’ learning week.  Hosted in partnership by First Garden City Heritage Museum and Letchworth Museum, this special schools week gave pupils a taster of Letchworth life on the World War Two Home Front.

We are looking to create a regional arts and culture base within Letchworth attracting visitors, artists and performers from the surrounding counties and beyond, whilst continuing to support local groups.

Last Thursday (20 October), Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation’s Board of Management travelled to Port Sunlight, arguably the finest surviving example of early urban planning in the UK, to share lessons in how the two towns are managed today.

Representatives from Port Sunlight Village Trust exhibited at Letchworth Arts Centre’s ‘Who do you think you are, Letchworth? festival last summer and invited the Foundation’s Board for a tour of their village. 

Last week, ten Letchworth Garden City schools watched a free film at Broadway Cinema to support learning in the classroom. This is the second year the independent cinema, owned and managed by Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, has taken part in National Schools Film Week. This year, over 1,600 children, teachers and parents visited the cinema; more than double last year’s attendance.

The Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation will publish a community directory of clubs and groups taking place during in the town during the next twelve months.

When it comes to customer service, Letchworth Garden City’s Tourist Information Centre is leading the way...

Tourism South East carried out a Mystery Shopper at their Station Road shop, covering all aspects of quality of service that a customer is likely to experience, when visiting a Tourist Information Centre.

Letchworth Garden City Town Centre’s £8m redevelopment scheme was praised last week for protecting the viability of its high street, being described as a beacon for place making by judges at the Regeneration & Renewal Awards.

Over 1,200 runners took part in the 24th annual Standalone 10k road race last Sunday (2 October) in glorious sunshine. The race follows an anticlockwise route around the north of Letchworth’s estate and attracted running teams from across the region as well as many people form the local community. A shorter 2k fun run followed for children to participate.

This Thursday, (6 October) former BBC News presenter Angela Rippon will be working at Letchworth Garden City’s Broadway Cinema as part of a new primetime BBC 1 series.

Local amateur photographers celebrated the conclusion of Letchworth’s community photographic competition on Friday, September 9, at a winner’s presentation evening at Heritage Foundation funded and run Letchworth Garden City Tourist Information Centre.

During the summer months residents, locals and visitors to the town were tasked with ‘snapping’ their favourite Letchworth Garden City building or public space.

Over 300 people got the chance to go behind-the-scenes of a traditional working picture house last weekend (Friday 9 to Sunday 11 September) as Broadway Cinema put on special tours as part of their 75th birthday celebrations.  

This week, Broadway Cinema turns 75 years old! Over the years, Letchworth’s third picture house has gone from a single screen auditorium to a four-screen complex.

The art deco building opened on 26 August 1936, to a black-tie gala screening of ‘Follow the Fleet’ starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. The auditorium, with its sumptuous interiors, reached its 1,400 capacity leaving many more turned away at the door.

To celebrate the anniversary, we have planned…

The Letchworth Garden City Tourist Information Centre yesterday (Thursday, July 28) announced the 13 winning photographs in their amateur community photographic competition, ‘Picture This’.

Over the spring and early summer months; residents, locals and visitors to the town were tasked with ‘snapping’ their top Letchworth Garden City landscape, building or public space, to take part in the contest.

A collection of photographs by an unknown photographer, which have recently been rediscovered and restored, are to be showcased by First Garden City Heritage Museum in their new exhibition, ‘The Edwardian Photographer’.  

The photographs, named ‘The Brunt Album’, have never been displayed or published anywhere before. The collection, which spans 1904 – 1909, has been carefully restored following a grant from the Association of Independent Museums.

This weekend from 10am, (Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 July) Letchworth Arts Centre are taking over Broadway Gardens with their latest festival ‘Who do you think you are, Letchworth?’ This years’ theme, centres on the origins to town planning and utopian activities, which is close to the heart of the Garden City.

Amateur photographers from across the region will compete to have their ‘snaps’ of Letchworth Garden City featured in a 2012 town calendar.

‘Picture This’, Letchworth Garden City Tourist Information Centre’s photographic competition is back by popular demand and looking for participants to send in up to three of their favourite landscapes, buildings or historic landmarks in the Garden City. The lucky winners will also receive their picture-perfect photograph printed on canvas.

Last Saturday, Letchworth Garden City’s Standalone Farm welcomed over 100 people from around the county to try a range of specially designed cycles for the mobility impaired, promoting disabled access to the countryside through the Garden City Greenway.

Visitors of all ages with a range of disabilities, some of whom have never ridden a bike before, cruised around with friends and families in side-by-side tandems, wheelchair tandems, hand-cranked trikes and other cycles.   

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation is calling for views and ideas on the future of Letchworth Town Centre, through a series of consultation initiatives starting with a public exhibition which opens this Saturday (14 May).