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A high-level delegation from Finland – including the Government’s Housing Minister – paid a special visit to the world’s first Garden City, on Monday 2 June 2008.

The eight strong delegation, which also included ‘captains of industry’ from Finland, spent a couple of hours at the Spirella Building, where they were given a presentation by their hosts, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation.

Demolishing a 1960’s building near the heart of the Garden City’s Town Centre, heralds a new era for one of the area’s top housing associations.

North Herts District Council’s Planning Committee gave the ‘green light’ on March 26, for the Street Scene proposals - the first stage of the Heritage Foundation’s Town Centre Re-development plans.

After the meeting, Stuart Kenny, the Foundation’s Director General said: “ I am pleased we secured planning permission for our Street Scene works, albeit with a raft of conditions, some curious, some disappointing in that they appear to reflect a lack of understanding of documentation we have submitted over a lengthy period of time.

Saturday (30 June 2007) saw Letchworth Garden City Town Centre buzzing with shoppers and alive to the flavours of Europe.

Echoes of an international house building design competition in the early 1900’s, which captured the imagination of the whole country, will once again reverberate around the world’s first Garden City.