The meeting, open to everyone who lives or works in Hoddesdon, has two main aims:
- to agree a slate of immediate priorities based on those published in 2007 by the Town Centre Partnership
Charles Walker agreed to participate on the basis that “as Broxbourne Member of Parliament, I recognise that there is a need for all interested parties to come together to find a workable solution that will reinvigorate Hoddesdon Town Centre. Emotions are running high on all sides and we must calmly sit down on the 26th to constructively talk things through. I remain convinced that we can achieve a win-win situation that meets the local concerns of traders and reflects the Council’s understandable desire to improve the retail experience across the Borough, both in our town centres and at Brookfield Farm.”
Local vicar Jeremy Brooks has offered the use of St Catherine’s & St Paul’s Church for the meeting because: “We have the opportunity here to make a difference to our town. It is easy to think that nothing we can do can make a difference, and this meeting will give us all the chance to express our views. Our concern in the church is to ensure that our community in Hoddesdon can flourish: we need the town centre shops and we need to ensure that the best possible future for us is safeguarded.”
Stephen Poulter, owner of Hoddesdon’s bookshop and former Town Centre Manager, also appealed for local people to come along: “This is the best possible way to bring public pressure to bear on Broxbourne Council so that they can’t continue to ignore their responsibilities under Government legislation to assist the town centre. We must stop any further deterioration and start a process of renewal by improving the town’s visibility and accessibility, and providing a focal point for participation by the whole community.”
At the meeting residents will be invited to discuss a CHARTER FOR HODDESDON which calls on Broxbourne District Council to implement the following:
a) Create a Parking Strategy for Hoddesdon Town Centre - the first priority being to open up the northern end of the High Street to create as many free short term parking spaces within the existing parking bays as possible. Long-term parking facilities must be introduced for town centre workers in an existing Council Car Park.
b) Initiate an urgent meeting with the owners of The Tower Centre and Fawkon Walk plus other major landlords with property holdings in the town to discuss tactics which can be adopted to attract new chain and independent retailers to move into the large number of empty retail units.
c) To fund the immediate launch of a Shop Local Campaign.
d) Provide proper funding for an annual programme of four Town Centre events each year which includes an money to help expand the Christmas Carnival of Light.
e) Install new signage at all main approaches to the town which welcomes people to Hoddesdon and directs them into the High Street.
f) Provide grant funding for the maintenance and expansion of the existing Hoddesdononline website to promote the town to visitors and businesses, and provide a resource for the local community.
g) To adopt a policy to actively encourage leisure facilities back into the Town Centre and specifically to provide financial support to fund the expansion of leisure activity programmes run by Mayhem Theatre Arts and other youth organisations aimed at children and young adults.
h) Introduce free parking in all the Borough’s car parks on each Saturday in December to counteract the same policies which have being adopted by both Epping Forest and East Herts Councils in the nearby towns of Waltham Abbey, Hertford and Ware.
i) To produce a Master Plan for Hoddesdon’s long term development in close consultation with local residents and businesses which includes a strategy to replace the Tower Centre.
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If the Town is to get an uplift in traders and customers, the area needs to be more user friendly.
ReplyDeleteCurrently the area around the clock tower / Amwell St. gets congested with illegally parked taxis.
Busses have trouble in negotiating into and out of the bus stops.
If the pedestrianised area is to be opened up then in the interest of traffic movement and safety this area needs to be looked at.
Is there not a way that some of the shop space in the Tower Shopping Centre could be turned over to social use such as a softplay area with coffee shop, a table tennis facility, snooker facility, indoor skate park/rink or even a Ten Pin Bowling alley.
ReplyDeleteThere surely must be other social needs that could be met by this currently (and likely to be for some time) empty space.
Thought would clearly need to be given to finding a way of funding such use but it would surely be a worthwhile exercise.
I have lived in Hoddesdon for the last 18 years and it saddens me that the Town is deteriorating. I have never been asked my views or volunteered them but I am appalled at the plans for expanding Brookfield Farm when despite the money spent on the Tower Centre it remains empty.
ReplyDeleteI feel very strongly that unless local people take an interest, the town will go the way of so many others and we will only be left with out of town shopping. A town needs a strong sense of community and this is sadly lacking. We need to provide safe places for young people to meet and surely if they had something to do there would be less vandelism. Only by working with the community can Hoddesdon Town Centre thrive and I sincerely hope the public meeting will be the start of something positive.
I totally agree with the annonymous poster. Hoddesdon needs something for young people. A bowling alley would be great! Why on earth hasn't one of the big gaming retailers such as Game or Gamestation ventured into Hoddesdon, their sales would be astronomical!
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