2009

The Arcade announces Sunday opening for Christmas

Following on from the recent refurbment and re-opening celebrations, The Acade retailers are in the mood for Christmas.

From now until Christmas the Arcade will be open seven days a week with Sunday opening between 10am and 4pm. With a great mix of shops The Arcade is the perfect destination for Christmas shopping.

Abacus Travel
Flights & holidays

Afro Elegance
Hair & Beauty

As preparations continue for the major redevelopment of The Wynd in 2011, the opportunity has arisen to welcome a number of new retailers to the area.

With long-term tenants now relocated to other premises in the town, new 'short-term' space has been made available. This space is perfect for 'business start-ups' looking to test the market without the pressure of a long term commitment.

Introducing...

AMT Tools & Discount Store (The Hardware Shop), 2 The Wynd 
A DIY and hardware store.

The £500,000 makeover of this special landmark in the world’s first Garden City’s has been declared open.

A large number of people gathered to mark the occasion in this popular indoor shopping precinct, on Friday, November 20.

Stuart Kenny, Director General of the Heritage Foundation, along with Hugh Harper, until recently the Chairman of Letchworth Garden City Town Centre Partnership, unveiled a commemorative plaque on the entrance from Leys Avenue.

A special landmark in the world’s first Garden City has just received a £500,000 makeover!

In 1996, the Heritage Foundation bought the popular indoor shopping precinct The Arcade in the heart of the town centre and undertook a major refurbishment the following year, which included a new roof, repainting, a new entrance out to The Wynd and improved signage.

Now, some 13 years on and with The Arcade having a direct link to the proposed new Wynd re-development, the facelift was completed this week.

Eight Friends, One SongPod, 2,000 tracks, 10 fun-packed minutes of song

The SongPod has landed in the centre of Letchworth Garden City, perfect for a sing song and a laugh with your friends. 

The SongPod is a state of the art Karaoke room with LCD screens, wireless microphones and comfortable seating.

Budding vocalists can choose from 2,000 titles featuring all the latest songs from artists such as Alexandra Burke, Black Eyed Peas and Cheryl Cole, plus all time classics from Abba, Michael Jackson and many more.

Letchworth Garden City's £8m Street Scene Improvement works are progressing so well, it is hoped that the scheme will be finished early, in April rather than May 2010.

Following discussions with retailers and the Town Centre Partnership the ‘break’ for the Christmas trading period has been shortened by about two weeks. Works will stop around 16 November and re-start 4 January 2010. During the shutdown both Eastcheap and Leys Avenue will be open to traffic.

Letter to the Editor of The Comet Newspaper, published 8 October 2009.

At a time when The Comet is running its admirable ‘Buy Local’ campaign, which the Foundation supports, I am disappointed that Louise McEvoy chooses to speculate that Letchworth residents who wish to retain the four trees in Leys Square might boycott local shops.

Letter to editor of The Comet newspaper, published 8th October 2009.

Dear Sir

I think it is disgraceful that the Heritage Foundation’s Director General Stuart Kenny should be singled out for attack through graffiti and in the columns of your newspaper.

The second phase in the world’s first Garden City’s regeneration of its town centre has taken a major step forward.

Against the backcloth of the national economic downturn, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation commissioned Skanska for an £8m contract to construct vital Street Scene Improvement works in the town centre as a pre-curser to the next phase and as part of its commitment to regenerate major parts of the town centre.

A symbolic ‘laying’ of the first York Stone slab in Eastcheap – as part of the new £8m Town Centre Street Scene Development in Letchworth Garden City – took place on Monday.

Work is on schedule for the Heritage Foundation scheme and it is hoped contractors Skanska will have finished the Eastcheap works in September, then move on to Leys Avenue for the next phase.

 

Work is underway on vital ‘Street Scene’ improvements for Letchworth Garden City’s two main shopping streets.

Major changes on Eastcheap and Leys Avenue will transform their ‘look and feel’.

Leys Square is being extended with new landscaped seating areas, attractive water features and sculptures between the ‘square’ and The Colonnade, opposite Letchworth Garden City railway station.

Beyond the Street Scene works on Eastcheap and Leys Avenue, the Foundation is investing massive sums to improve Town Centre shop premises.

Letchworth Garden City Town Centre has many fine buildings. Yet over the years, the combination of inappropriate alterations, low-grade materials and garish signage has taken its toll on the attraction of some parts of the Town Centre.

Working with retailers and businesses, the Foundation is taking steps to arrest the decline.

At a time when many town centre redevelopment plans are, at best, being ‘put on ice’, Letchworth Garden City, in Hertfordshire, is ‘bucking the trend’.

Stuart Kenny, Director General of Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, said: “Our Town Centre revitalisation took a major step forward on Thursday (26 March 2009) when a Traffic Regulation Order was approved by the Joint Members Panel ( Herts County Council and North Herts District Council), for our Street Scene works.

“Subject to legal agreements and contracts being finalised in the near future, we hope to be on site in May.