2011

Nine year old Letchworth resident, Cassidy Crossan, was the winner of our 'Name the Reindeer' competition on Saturday 10th December.

Cassidy's prize which included a toy Reindeer and the adoption of another Reindeer from The Reindeer Centre, Kent, called 'Cracker' named the baby 'Snowy' after her Mother, Snowball and her silvery white colouring.

Here is your chance to win an animal encounter for your school!

Christmas came to Letchworth Garden City Town Centre in style on Saturday. The finale of our Christmas Light Switch On was unashamedly magical with snow falling onto the crowds, fireworks lighting up the night sky, and a rousing chorus of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday filling Leys Square.

I hope everyone enjoyed Saturday as much as we did but if you couldn’t make it here are a few highlights.

On Thursday December 1st over 50 business owners and operators from Letchworth Garden City attended a business forum held by the Letchworth Town Centre partnership.

The forum was held to outline the results from a recent business survey held in the town and to seek ways for businesses to work together to improve trade in the Garden City.

Stocking up on festive gifts and treats will be easier than ever in Letchworth Town Centre this year as the town welcomes the opening of a crop of fantastic new shops.

The lights are going up around the town centre and we’re counting down the days to Saturday 26th November for the Christmas Light Switch On.

Over the coming weeks there are some events taking place either in the town centre or close by that I’m keen to tell you about.

Herts Highways have released the first draft of the new Urban Transport Plan (UTP) for Letchworth & Baldock. This plan sets out the priorities for work by Herts Highways in these two towns over the next five years (2012-2017) and their key aims. The documents which can be found by clicking here are over 200 pages long and so we have decided to summarise them.

Saturday 30th July saw three talented buskers strumming their stuff in Letchworth Garden City Town Centre. Visitors and shoppers enjoyed more than three hours of acoustic melodies, cover songs and original material from Pete Guy, Scott Mendez and Paige Martin, who had been invited to play in the Arcade by the Letchworth Town Centre Partnership. Shoppers stopped and showed their appreciation by dropping coins in the hat, or breaking out in spontaneous applause.

This week the Town Centre Partnership was invited to attend the grandly titled Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation Design Symposium. The Symposium was called to seek opinions on the future of the Garden City and provide possible ways to improve the consumer offer in the town. Upon receiving the invite I have to admit to being clueless as to the nature of a symposium. So, utilising the power of the internet the decision was made to undertake some research. Interestingly a symposium is described on Wikipedia as a drinking party.

The proud winners of a recent design a Letchworth stamp competition today each received their framed set of smiler stamps from Postal Pursuits owner, Thomas Humfrey.

The competition, organised by Postal Pursuits and the Letchworth Town Centre Partnership, asked youngsters back in April to create a stamp design on the theme of ‘Britannia’ as part of the town’s celebrations for St George’s Day, Easter and the Royal Wedding.

There seems no end to the bad news that emanates out of the financial sector. House prices set to take another decade to reach their pre-crash levels, salaries rising much lower than inflation and disposable income sparse. It all adds fuel to our fears of a further collapse as our country teeters on the brink.

I was invited this week to the Letchworth Arts and Leisure Group coffee morning to discuss the changing face of the High Street. Joining me was a representative from the Heritage Foundation and a group of wonderfully passionate and enthusiastic members from the LALG collective. The LALG will be 25 years old next year and their membership has swelled from an initial fifty households to over 1500 and shows no sign of abating. In fact just last weekend the LALG signed up nine new members at the ‘Who Do You Think You Are, Letchworth’ weekend, hosted by The Arts Centre.

Last weekend saw the Letchworth Festival draw to a close. Two weeks of activities were rounded off with a successful Day of Dance, held on Saturday in Leys Square, and the Proms in the Park on the Sunday.

A 24hr break in the  rain came just in time for thousands of fun-seekers to make their way into Letchworth to enjoy the Street Fest. A torrential hail storm on Friday evening cleared the air and Saturday morning heralded glorious sunshine to ensure that all the performers and public got to witness a wonderful day in the Garden City.

With Eastcheap and Leys Avenue closed to traffic the crowds got uninterrupted freedom of the town centre as well over 100 performers entertained the. crowds across nine sites.

Plans for the short term improvements to The Wynd are now available. These have received planning permission and can be downloaded here. Visit the Next Steps website for more information

The winners of the Letchworth Garden City Children’s Easter Egg hunt were selected today at random from the piles of correct entries handed in to the Tourist Information Centre. 

The hottest day of the year so far greeted the crowds as they came in to Letchworth Garden City to celebrate St. George's Day, Easter & The Royal Wedding.

With live entertainment from a range of fantastic performers and craft stalls galore there was loads to see and do for all the family.

INTERIM improvements to a town centre are set to go ahead while a long-term redevelopment of the area remains on hold.

Gas pipeline operator National Grid commence a £200,000, twenty six week project to replace the gas mains in Letchworth in the week commencing 4 April 2011.

The work will involve replacing approximately a kilometre of old metal gas mains with new hard-wearing plastic pipes along Birdshill from the junction of Pixmore Avenue to adjacent to 49 Station Road (outside Morrisons Supermarket).

The project will be carried out on behalf of National Grid by Morrison Utility Services.

The winner of our fantastic Valentine's competition was selected today and we can now reveal that our lucky lady was Kate Wright of Letchworth Garden City.

Kate entered the competition whilst chosing her wedding flowers at Aspidistra Florists the week prior to the closing date.

Kate, who is getting married to Kieron on 2nd July of this year, said:

"We had been in Aspidistara a couple of times before but had not got around to entering, but the owner [Carol] persuaded us. We're glad she did."

It is customary at the start of each New Year to take a look back at the year that went before. I’m not one to break with tradition, so without further ado let us go back twelve months…

Uncertainty with the economy, a town in the middle of development, one of the coldest winters on record…. Hang on – is this definitely a review of last year?

Letchworth Town Centre Partnership have teamed up with the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation to once again bring you FREE car parking this Christmas in Letchworth Garden City.

LGCHF have very kindly offered use of the car park at The Spirella Building free of charge to town centre shoppers every weekend from Saturday 26th November until Saturday 24th December. The Spirella Building is just a 2 minute walk from the town centre.