Ancient Greece or LGC?

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. It was, in ancient Greece, a forum to debate, plot, boast, or simply to revel with others.

Now before any accusations of plotting and boasting are made it would be worth pointing out that we were not in ancient Greece but were, in fact, in Plinston Hall. The Togas and Sandals were conspicuous by their absence. I’m pretty sure I saw no revelling either! There was, however, plenty of interesting and lively debate. Despite some heavyweight opinions presented about the future of the Garden City there are still no firm answers on the table.

One chain of thought is for a relative soft-touch approach. We have a beautiful town and by improving the offer within the centre we would see more visitors and potential customers. Another school of thought is for a major investment to bring in a visitor attraction.

Both ideas have a relative value and potential to make a difference. What are your thoughts?

A good example of the soft-touch approach can be seen in The Wynd, where the improvement works have almost finished. The fencing around the car park has been erected and the fencing around the play area will soon be removed allowing access to the eagerly anticipated pirate ship. The Wynd car park, which is unbelievably good value at just 20p an hour, is becoming more and more popular and suggests that people have an appetite to shop in Letchworth if access and convenience is enhanced.

Talking of The Wynd, welcome to the latest shop to open its doors. The Secret Garden, run by Alan & Clare, sells a range of flowers, furniture and gifts. They also offer a vintage china and picnic hire service. The shop is lovely inside so why not pop your head through the door over the next few weeks and see what treasures are on offer. You can find The Secret Garden at 3 The Wynd.

Finally, Garden City Florists on Arena Parade celebrate their sixth year of trading on August 1st. I’d like to congratulate Dawn and her staff for this achievement, not a mean feat in the current economic climate which has recently seen some of the big players on the high street take a tumble.