More than 350 people packed into St Paul's Church in Hoddesdon on the 26th March for a major public meeting to discuss the urgent need for initiatives to revive Hoddesdon town centre. At the end of nearly two hours the audience made up of residents and local businesses voted unanimously to back the Hoddesdon Charter and launch a campaign to lobby Broxbourne Council to implement its points.
Broxbourne’s Conservative MP Charles Walker who ably chaired the event, introduced a range of speakers and encouraged a wide variety of contributions from the floor. Rev Jeremy Brooks, who had offered free use of his church for the meeting, started the evening by emphasising it was crucial for the local community to become actively involved in determining the future of their own town. Kevin Brooks, owner of Cannon Travel presented his vision of the future in which Hoddesdon might exist as an expanded retail centre with Greater Brookfield developed to provide additional housing and major leisure facilities, but not include the proposed 75 additional retail units which would only serve to fatally damage the retailers in the existing town centres.
Lyn Newhook, a resident of Rye Park, argued Hoddesdon needed fresh and innovative ideas to turn it into a shopping destination, and suggested that one of the many empty retail units in the town be adapted to accommodate market stalls which would be offered to local farmers and smallholders to bring in their produce to sell in the town.
Alan Jeffery, co-owner of books@Hoddesdon introduced each of the points of the Hoddesdon Charter, giving the historical context along with the current policies of Broxbourne Council and detailing their abysmal track record with regard to implementing them. For the final point he handed over to 18 year old Gareth Monk, Head Boy of the John Warner School, who made an impressive and impassioned plea for leisure facilities for young people to be introduced in to the town centre and pointed out that the lack of them led to boredom which inevitably encouraged anti-social behaviour. He warned that the town was seriously in danger of losing its next generation as there was nothing to encourage them to stay.
A lively discussion followed where arguments were made from the floor for introducing more leisure facilities, restoring free parking to the north end of the High Street, re-opening Hoddesdon Open Air Pool, making more of the town’s history and heritage, organising workshops for small businesses, and putting pressure on landlords to drop rents to help new retailers afford to take on empty shops.
As closing speaker Stephen Poulter asked for a vote to be taken on whether the meeting wished to adopt the Hoddesdon Charter as the basis for re-vitalising the town, which was carried unanimously. He then asked for a second vote as to whether people wanted a campaign group to be set up to lobby Broxbourne Council to implement the Charter, which was also unanimously passed. He went on to highlight the Council's appalling track record in ignoring the wishes of local people over the pedestrianisation of the town, the closure of the Open Air swimming pool, and the further expansion of Brookfield Farm. He suggested that the campaign would therefore be as much about the restoration of local democracy in the Borough as about regenerating Hoddesdon.
Video extracts of several speakers and a report on the meeting can be viewed at the Hertfordshire Mercury’s website:
http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/hertfordshiremercury/displayarticle.asp?id=403989
The first meeting of the ACTION FOR HODDESDON campaign will take place on Thurs 23rd of April at 7pm in the Hunt room next door to the main entrance to St Paul’s Parish Church in Hoddesdon.
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It is time for the Tower centre to come down. It is like walking through a wind tunnel and when wet like a duck pond. In the evenings you have youths gathering under the clock tower drinking and shouting till late at night. The town looks like something out of the slums early Staurday and Sunday mornings with litter,broken bottle and lager cans strewn about, then you have the broken. The opening of KFC has caused traffic problems as customers are too lazy to park in the provided car parks so park alongside the bollards and cause traffic jams.Speaking to several residents of Tower Heights many would be only too happy to be relocated. The building is unsightly and drab spoiling the look of our town.
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