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[dizzy]

Well it would be marvellous if it happens!!!what is the suggested time scale??though that could be a fairy story!!

[Benson]

Hello Jonmorris

I dont know if you went to the Old Hatfield charrette with Andrés Duany. He said that for successful town centres you need to choose which shops you want to have and then make it viable for them to operate. So if you want a high quality butcher the council/town centre owner actually go and actively recruit one. If that means you have have to give them rate/rent relief until they are established you do it.

But I think the biggest threat to the town and its sustainability is the University. I am not against students but the balance in the town is wrong. We need more local/permament residents who have money to spend in the town. Because the of the high student population I feel Hatfield is dying. For instance I know that since the Forum has opened up many local pubs are really really struggling. The Univeristy should be a jewel in the Hatfield's crown but i think it has become a noose that is strangling the life out of Hatfield.

[Broadside]

Benson,
I agree with your sentiments.
The very one thing that the University is not - is a community partner. They behave like overlords.
They are a big business, and that is what they really are. Forget the education stuff, that's a side issue.
Some serious dialogue could be coming soon!

[Broadside]

 
Trekbat,
You wrote:
Having seen models, presentations, leaflets, hoardings and bore holes for the last town centre redevelopment, any celebrations may prove to be premature (nearly 20-years in Hatfield has done wonders for my sense of cynicism).

Planning permission does not automatically mean the plan will be implemented - as we've seen before.

WGC town centre is held up as a triumph of urban planning around the world because of its layout and overall uniformity - design in other words. While ye olde world charm and style of its old quarter enhances St Albans. Both places are alternatives and therefore competitors to Hatfield.

The town centre 'presentations' and consultations that occurred about 8 years ago were an orchestrated fob
to give the public the impression that their views counted. Of course this was rubbish.
 
In 1983 a Council commisioned town centre Study Report virtually condemned the area and gave advice.
Nothing but decline has happened since - false dawns
excepting.
 
You say that "WGC is a triumph of urban planning ...etc"
However, like Letchworth, it appears a contrived and soulless place - because it was created. Unlike other places (Hatfield, Old Welwyn) that evolved.
 
What with the proposed olde Town redevelopment, the
St.Modwen house builders should be encouraged to complement their designs to Hatfield's ancient heritage.
 
On another note, you have to laugh: The WGC Times newspaper ran an article about their town 'celebrating'
it's 90 years of history.....How sad is that?
Hatfield and Old Welwyn go back over a thousand years. How about a knees-up for them?
 
PS
The 'bore holes' that were being drilled in around the town centre shortly before the project was shelved -
were clearly a ruse to give the impression that works were progressing at the time (shortly before the local elections).
I've paid for civil engineers to do bore holes. The guys
in the town centre were on perpetual 'go-slow' simply
for effect.

 

[Anne]

WGC town centre is held up as a triumph of urban planning around the world because of its layout and overall uniformity - design in other words. 

Is that before or after the installation of the Howard Centre? The conversion of the Cherry Tree to Waitrose supermarket? And now the abandoned extension to the council offices at the Campus? And whatever it is that Sainsburys are going to do?   

[aracnid]

Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield were two thriving towns and had thriving economies until apost war government decided to create the biggest quango ever. 
This was the New Towns Developement Corporation which systematically over developed and destroyed both towns in the name of rebuilding Britain and social housing.
Then later after the damage was done and the dust settled renamed it as The New Town Commission, which now I believe is under another title.
Neither town has recovered fully from the meddling and we are all living with the after effects and will for years to come I suspect.

[MikeHobday]

Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield were two thriving towns and had thriving economies until apost war government decided to create the biggest quango ever. 
This was the New Towns Developement Corporation which systematically over developed and destroyed both towns in the name of rebuilding Britain and social housing.
Then later after the damage was done and the dust settled renamed it as The New Town Commission, which now I believe is under another title.
Neither town has recovered fully from the meddling and we are all living with the after effects and will for years to come I suspect.

So nothing to do with the Tory recession closing British Aerospace, then?
Mike

[jonmorris]

I don't know what Hatfield was like in the 80s and 90s, but I know how much it has changed in just seven years of living here - namely every bit of land being snapped up for shoebox sized flats and houses.

Everyone who seems to live in a new build estate/block with open-plan frontages and land all seem to have serious problems and tales to tell. Goodness knows why we ever moved away from roads with individual gardens and fences/walls to give some space and privacy.

I know the open-plan way looks nicer, when the land is looked after properly (but by who? management companies that turn up twice a year?) but in the real world, I firmly believe humans need their own space.

[aracnid]

MH
Do not spout labour style retoric when you have only collected selected items of Aerospace history, if you want some hard facts on the decline of British Aerospace in Hatfield and Stevenage as both sites interacted with each other.
Who cancelled our development of TSR2 the most advanced supersonic aircraft program and gave all the data and engineers to USA ---Labour Mid 60s.
Then devalued the pound which made it harder to get and pay for raw materials for the industry.
To add to this they decided to try to nationalise the Aircraft industry but didnt quite work out so was dropped.

[Mighty Hatfield]

I was too young to remember the technicalities of who owned what company in the 80s, but to suggest that rampant conservatism wasnt the bane of many industry is shortsighted at best.

Wikipedia seems to have a good account of things, oh look, the tories sold it off! 

In accordance with the provisions of the British Aerospace Act 1980 the statutory corporation was changed to a Public limited company (plc), British Aerospace Public Limited Company, on 1 January 1981. On 4 February 1981 the government sold 51.57% of its shares. The British government sold its remaining shares in 1985, maintaining a £1 Golden Share which allows it veto foreign control of the board or company

I remember the closure of British Aerospace well.

I remember that the government did nothing to help the business (which is what Cameron would have us have done in the last year), or the workers of Hatfield, many of whom had been encouraged to buy their own council houses. 

Lets hope the new plans for Hatfield town centre are not another of a series of false dawns.  Im quite hopeful of the actual design, and will keep a very close eye from within the council to hopefully see them come to fruition.

[hobit]

  Benson and Jonmorris I heartly agree with both of you.  Heard it all before still do not believe it will happen.  Or if it does it will look cheap and nasty.  It will be like the shops in the Galleria here today
and gone tomorrow.  I always felt when Woolco closed this area should have been turned into an indoor market as is at Stevenage.
 

[Anne]

Have you seen the pdf files on: http://www.welhat.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2000?
They take ages to download. Does anyone know if there is a model available yet?

[MikeHobday]

Have you seen the pdf files on: http://www.welhat.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2000?
They take ages to download. Does anyone know if there is a model available yet?

The public exhibition will be Fenb 11-13 at the former Pizza Hut.
Mike

[debshertsuk]

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/hatfield_regeneration_project_launches_public_forum_1_149178

Why the heck is the Forum for HATFIELD being held in WGC?

[jonmorris]

Because the council buildings are in WGC?