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[javaneh]

I apologise in advance if this subject has been discussed here before. If it has ... I can only conclude that nothing came of it as there are no visable changes and Hatfield remains the poor relation.

I'm not going to go into the town centre issue as I have no doubt that has been discussed but let it stand as a typical example of my complaint.

When I go to WGC I note that the grass always seems shorter and well kept. The hedges seem more frequently trimmed, the roads seem to have less holes..... and so on and so forth. My point is that WGC is far more visually attractive because it appears to be well maintained in comparison with Hatfield and has better community amenities... and so of course it is going to attract more business and visitors even though Hatfield has a unique tourist attraction i.e. Hatfield house and Gardens. Somehow along the way, Hatfield has become more than a little forgotten and neglected by the council.

I really feel strongly that it's about time some money was injected into improving Hatfield to the same standard as WGC.There is a psychological aspect to this issue also...  so long as Hatfield is neglected in the way it has been, it's residents feel they are less valued and loose pride in their environment. It has been almost given over to the university and student population and there's nothing wrong with that .... infact it is another reason why it should be maintained.... the student population bring income with them but where do they go to for entertainment? to shop? Like the residents of Hatfield, they have to go somewhere else. And like the residents of Hatfield they have little pride in their surroundings.

We have the potential to be something more than what we are now. We have the potential to attract business and we certainly have a ready and handy population to staff local businesses.

[Kodes]

It was ever thus!  Well, in my forty-odd years here anyway.  As a Garden City, WGC has a lot more greenery than Hatfield (excl. Hatfield Park of course) which makes it easier on the human eye, and I think it probably all stems from that.

[Broadside]

When one discusses WGC the 'Garden City' bit is really all about west-side WGC where the posh people live, their town centre there and, of course ,that blessed
Parkway which hoovers up so much of our money
in expensive maintaince.
Whereas WGC doyens like to imagine  their town is the '8th Wonder of the World' (the Council too) I'm often reminded of the Nuremberg Rallies when driving down Parkway. Even though it sort of begins nowhere, it seems to end at the Campus, where, all that's missing is a Triumphal Arch through which the disenfranchised Hatfield folk walk - bringing with them their taxes to pay for the preservation of this most pompous and insignificant place.
I've got no problem with WGC looking spick and span, but as a Hatfield resident I do not want to pay for it !

[Hatfield Girl]

All of the council offices are in WGC.  What is that saying about what the eye doesn't see......

[jonmorris]

How much of the council will remain in the future though? They're privatising most of the services, to save rather tiny amounts of money, and having inside knowledge of the scams of 'partnering', these are NOT the way to go to save money.

Most staff will work for a private company, and they may not wish to pay very high rates to be located in the town centre.

But, we'll all find that out in a few years time - so there's no point worrying about it now. The decisions are already made.

[John Wood]

I hate having to pay for, The Hatfield Town Council, who do not do too much,
for Hatfield.

[jonmorris]

They could do with updating their website once in a while.

Behind our estate (Campion Road, on the business park), there's a huge amount of land that was landscaped last year and is a pretty amazing place to walk or play - or will be if they ever tarmac the walkway to cover the mix of gravel and broken glass.

Now there are signs giving basic rules (dogs on leads etc) that are marked Hatfield Town Council. But, there's nothing on the website except to say they've acquired the land.

I want to know what's going to happen there in the future (will there be any facilities put in?). There's a car park, so people could actually come from elsewhere to walk around, play on the grass, have a picnic etc - but I bet few people even know it exists!! It's not small either!

[kevyn]

What's the use of complaining about our town, nobody listens because nobody cares. It's like Hatfield girl says, all the offices are in a diffent town so what they eye doesn't see etc. Do they honestly think that by painting a damned train on a deserted post office building we should all be gratefull? Talk about insult us! A lick of paint, a camera or two and we have some over-paid council pillock trying to tell us what a wonderfull job they've done for us and trying to make it sound like we should be gratefull for that. Maybe if we got rid of our joke town council and all the clowns in it, we could save a fortune and buy some more paint for a few more trains. yay! Happy days! :-)

[jonmorris]

Besides Asda, I cannot see myself ever going back to Hatfield town centre, CCTV or no CCTV. Painted walls to me are associated with slums, so they're not a good thing - especially when painted on boards covering up empty shops because nobody else wants to be there either (and this is pre-credit crunch so we can't blame the downturn on the lack of retail in Hatfield)!

And, to be honest, the original plan for the town centre was not going to make it much better. Sure, less ugly concrete, but still a crap town with crap shops but loads of housing and flats. I'm not really that upset about the whole St Mowden fiasco because we would have simply ended up with another mess.

We may as well knock down the whole town centre and turn it into housing and concentrate on the new town centre near the Galleria (and that's having some problems of its own, although at least they're now fixing the uneven areas there and hopefully executing the original developers that could build it so badly). At least that will always look like it is focused on retail and entertainment.

When we go shopping somewhere other than Tesco or Asda, I have to admit that it's either WGC or London (as I have a season ticket, it's free to get into London as against paying petrol/parking to get to WGC!). Hatfield is almost beyond help because the plans were drawn up when nobody was thinking of anything but housing - as an obvious cash cow. Now the bubble has burst, there aren't so many people looking for property - especially not the foreign investors looking to make easy money on lettings.

[I am Legion]

My point is that WGC is far more visually attractive because it appears to be well maintained in comparison with Hatfield and has better community amenities... and so of course it is going to attract more business and visitors even though Hatfield has a unique tourist attraction i.e. Hatfield house and Gardens. Somehow along the way, Hatfield has become more than a little forgotten and neglected by the council.

Hatfield is less visually attractive because it was designed down to a cost. WGC was designed up to a high specification.

WGC will ALWAYS be more attractive to business because

a) it has a properly designed heart with shops, bus station and railway station with the vast majority of houses just a short distance away
b) a higher population
c) the garden city design with lots of trees and hedges and houses on large plots.

I'm afraid no amount of moaning is going to change the above.

[Mighty Hatfield]

My point is that WGC is far more visually attractive because it appears to be well maintained in comparison with Hatfield and has better community amenities... and so of course it is going to attract more business and visitors even though Hatfield has a unique tourist attraction i.e. Hatfield house and Gardens. Somehow along the way, Hatfield has become more than a little forgotten and neglected by the council.

Hatfield is less visually attractive because it was designed down to a cost. WGC was designed up to a high specification.

WGC will ALWAYS be more attractive to business because

a) it has a properly designed heart with shops, bus station and railway station with the vast majority of houses just a short distance away
b) a higher population
c) the garden city design with lots of trees and hedges and houses on large plots.

I'm afraid no amount of moaning is going to change the above.

what a very Welwyn Garden City answer you have given there.

a) Hatfield is a new town, designed in the 50s, with huge amounts going for it
b) Hatfield has always been attractive to business, T Mobile, Computacentre, The Uni etc.

Whether they are attractive to business or not (and they both obviously ARE) is not the issue.

What we need is parity in local services. We do not get this at present.

[lady001]

what are we paying our council tax for certainly not for the shops in C***field as there aren`t any worth while looking at.
All we ever get are promises.
As for business everything revolves around the UNI and the wonderful student`s, as long as the UNI keep on getting fees from the Student`s that is all they care about, it dosen`t matter what the resident`s have to put up with.

[John Wood]

Well said Lady001,

[Sleepless in Hatfield]

Ditto Lady001

[Kay]

Jonmorris - I totally agree with what you have said here.  If you go past the original painting done (the shop on the corner), you will see it has already started to attract vandalism (hole in the wood) and some graffitti.

That sort of painting, reminds me of pictures seen in run down areas of New York.

tt4n - Kay



"Painted walls to me are associated with slums, so they're not a good thing - especially when painted on boards covering up empty shops because nobody else wants to be there either (and this is pre-credit crunch so we can't blame the downturn on the lack of retail in Hatfield)!"