Welwyn Garden Heritage

The possibility of some serious cash from the European Union has brought the Welwyn Garden Heritage Trust and the University of Hertfordshire together as partners. Funds up to several million Euros are on offer. Announcing the link-up Tony Skottowe explained that the Trust had been approached late last year to join a group from Paris and Liege to apply for funds. “Aimed at Garden Cities, and how the idea could help town planning now, part of the project is to find ways to reduce energy use in homes. To have any chance of being successful we needed an academic partner”, he said.

Dr Stephen Boffey, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Regional Affairs at the University, took up the story. “When Tony came to us with the possibility of getting involved we quickly realised that the idea behind it linked perfectly with our commitment to supporting our local community. From that point on it was just a short step to becoming a full partner with the Trust.”

Work is currently is based on Garden Cities and how they work as communities. Welwyn Garden City is a superb example of what a garden city can be. It is a model for designing new towns. If we can also help with ideas on how to save energy in existing homes we should have a really powerful bid”, Tony explained.

The Trust is planning a public meeting on the evening of 12th May in Campus West. They will present their plans for a Heritage Centre and suggest how people can help make it a reality.

The Trust held a meeting to outline its ideas on creating a Heritage Centre in Welwyn Garden City on 25th March to gauge the reaction of representatives of industry, retailers and public bodies. The result according to Tony Skottowe and his fellow Trustees was " A resounding chorus of approval."

An audience of around twenty 'movers and shakers' from the town were invited and were given a visual presentation by Rob Cowan of Urban Design Skills the consultants appointed to carry out an initial feasibility study for the Trust. Guests were shown what it might be possible for the Centre to offer the town and other local organisations if it becomes a reality.

Particularly encouraging was the response from one major retail operator who commented that "An outstanding building offering exciting new reasons for visiting the town would be a great asset". Understandably concerns were expressed about obtaining the funding for such an ambitious venture but the Trustees are already investigating potential support from a European Union scheme involving the importance of the Garden City ideals to modern urban living and the issue of sustainability.

The Trust will be holding a similar presentation for its supporters and any members of the public who are interested on the evening of Tuesday 12th May in Campus West. Please check our Events listing for details.

The Welwyn Garden Heritage Trust was recently invited to send a representative to an EU project in Paris based on the importance of Garden Cities throughout the Community. As it turned out Welwyn Garden was the only UK town to turn up out of all those contacted.

The meeting took place in St. Denis opposite The Stade de France, which is just to the north of central Paris, and involved people from Belgium, Germany, The Czech Republic, Hungary and France. There are numerous garden cities across Europe all based on the original ideas of Ebenezer Howard but adapted to create green havens in cities such as Paris and Budapest. The two themes of the meeting were “Tourism & Culture”, looking at how garden cities could work together to promote their towns and increase tourism, and “Garden Cities and Sustainability”, which concerns combining all the main features of the garden city concept with the need to create sustainable communities for the future. As part of the meeting delegates were taken on a tour of one of the ‘garden cities’ in St Denis.

Following its commitment to consult on implementation of the revived Estate Management Scheme (EMS) with both the WGC Society and the Trust an initial meeting was held on 22nd October.

First item on the agenda was publicising the EMS to everyone in the town, whether in the scheme or not, given that it is likely to affect all the residents in some way over time. The Council will be publishing and distributing a new booklet on the EMS that will be delivered to very house affected. WGCS and WGHT promised to promote the scheme to the best of their abilities via their members and supporters as well as using the respective websites.