OVER 70 ATTEND FIRST CAMPAIGN MEETING - ACTION GROUPS SET UP

At a packed meeting last night over 70 people agreed to set up an ACTION FOR HODDESDON campaign group as an independent community group of residents and business people who are concerned about the current state of our historic market town and its communities, and wish to ensure that the views of local people are taken into account when decisions are made which affect the growth and development of Hoddesdon in the future.

Action for Hoddesdon's vision for the future:

Hoddesdon will be a safe, attractive and well designed town, enhanced by the quality of its built and natural environments, acting as the focal point for the whole community.

The heritage of the town will be respected and all future developments will be sympathetic to its character and setting.

The town will need to be economically viable – improving the profitability and allowing for the growth of its businesses as well as increasing local employment opportunities.

Sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions will be developed and encouraged alongside new measures to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.

The whole community will be encouraged to contribute to the town’s future through debate, discussion and consultation on development policies and proposals.

Objectives:

Over the last 40 years our rural market town has seen an explosion of new housing development and rapid population growth. That expansion is likely to continue and we therefore want to ensure a sustainable and economically viable future for town, whilst improving the quality of life for newcomers and long-established residents. At the same time we need to protect the town's unique heritage, attractive rural character and local distinctiveness for both its citizens and casual visitors.

Aims:

1) To lobby Broxbourne Council to address the major issues which are currently affecting the town, as outlined in the Charter for Hoddesdon:

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.

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.

To fund the immediate launch of a Shop Local Campaign.

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.

Install new signage at all main approaches to the town which welcomes people to Hoddesdon and directs them into the High Street.

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.

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.

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.

2) To set up a working group to produce a Town Design Statement for Hoddesdon which will provide support for local planning guidance by protecting and enhancing local distinctiveness and ensuring that all future development is appropriate to the scale, character and ambience of the town. This will contain concrete proposals for the type of development which should replace the town’s failed shopping precinct – The Tower Centre.

3) To set up a working group to monitor Broxbourne Council’s plans for the expansion of Brookfield Farm and to ensure significant public input into their future progress to ensure that any developments there do not adversely affect the viability and vitality of Hoddesdon.

The group will consult and collaborate with relevant pressure groups as well as officers and elected representatives at Borough, County, regional and national levels to identify planning and policy areas that are open to consultation and that might have an impact on the town and its surrounding area. The group may cooperate with, or work in formal partnership with other voluntary and statutory organisations, political groupings and commercial companies as well as using a range of approaches including surveys and public meetings to engage with local people.

Organisation and Structure:

A Steering Group was formed to include three key officers: chair, secretary and treasurer. Steering Group members will serve for periods of up to two years after which they must stand for re-election. The Steering Group will review terms of reference and receive reports from working groups, determine when general meetings should take place, set the agenda, produce newsletters and other publicity including meeting notices in the local press, invite external speakers, and manage the process of meetings. The Steering Group will meet as necessary to carry out this role.

Three Action Groups were also set up - one to deal with Publicity and Communication; a second to consider Leisure and Events including closure of the Outdoor Swimming Pool; and a third to look at Planning issues, starting with developing concrete proposals for the proposed Hoddesdon Town Centre Strategy which is supposed to be produced by Broxbourne Council this summer.

All three groups will be holding their first meetings next week - Publicity at Mayhem Theatre Arts in Brewery Road at 6.45pm on Monday 27th Apr; Leisure at The Hunt Room at Hoddesdon Parish Church at 6.45pm on Thurs 30th April, and Planning on Weds 29th Apr 7.30pm at Riversmead (e mail fredaldwinckle@yahoo.co.uk for address) We look forward to seeing as many people as possible who would like to come along and can spare some time and effort to contribute to all or any of these Action Groups.

We are also distributing a petition for people to sign to indicate their support for Broxbourne Council's proposals to re-open the north end of Hoddesdon High Street for free short term parking, as outlined in their draft consultation document. We need as many residents as possible to sign this document - so please come to Cannon Travel or Books @ Hoddesdon and sign yourself as well as encouraging your friends, neighbours and work colleagues to do likewise. If you are a member of a club, organisation or society then please e mail action4hoddesdon@googlemail.com and we will send you a copy of the petition so you can take it along to get fellow members to sign too. Please return the petition to books @ Hoddesdon at 79, High Street by Thursday 7th May.

INAUGURAL MEETING OF ACTION 4 HODDESDON CAMPAIGN

Following the unanimous vote taken by the 350 people who packed Hoddesdon Parish Church
last month, a meeting has been organised on Thursday 23rd April to set up an Action For Hoddesdon campaign. Anyone living or working in the town who wants to take an active part in getting Broxbourne Council to implement a range of policies to rejuvenate Hoddesdon as a matter of urgency is invited to come along to the Hunt Room next door to Hoddesdon Parish
Church on 23rd April at 7pm.

The meeting’s priorities will be to :

• Set up a small steering committee
• Agree a set of aims for the campaign
• Ensure the delivery of substantial feedback from local residents and businesses to the proposals in Broxbourne Council’s forthcoming Hoddesdon Town Centre Strategy.
• Lobby for the points in the Hoddesdon Charter to be implemented by Broxbourne Council.

Alan Jeffery, owner of Hoddesdon’s bookshop and a key speaker at the Public Meeting, said “This is an opportunity for all members of the local community to share their views on the future of our town, and then work together to make it happen. We look forward to seeing anyone who can spare a little time to help out with a wide range of tasks – writing and designing leaflets, preparing and delivering mailouts, updating the campaign website, fund-raising and helping with online research.”

The campaign would also welcome anyone who currently is, or has been in the past, a solicitor, accountant, architect or local authority planning officer.

For further information contact: action4hoddesdon@googlemail.com

PACKED PUBLIC MEETING BACKS CHARTER FOR CHANGE IN HODDESDON

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.