Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation has appointed Pam Burn as the first female chair of its board, replacing Colin Chatfield, who has held the post for nine and a half years.
Pam has been a governor of the Foundation since 2016, chairing its Grants Committee and working on a project to identify the key issues affecting families and young people in Letchworth. It was this work that convinced her to become more involved with the organisation.
Pam said: “The families and young people’s project revealed a side of Letchworth that I never knew existed. The findings were published in our booklet, A View of Life in Letchworth Today. Two statistics stood out for me, but there were many others: one in four children in Letchworth are locked in poverty; only 52.9% of Letchworth children are developing well at age five compared to Hertfordshire’s average of 65.9%. I wondered how can this be in our green and leafy town? And what could the Foundation do to help improve things for everyone in the town?”
“I hope that over the period of my Chairmanship we will be able to facilitate the partnerships I believe will become increasingly necessary and will enable us to help to deliver better services, homes and transport for all our residents. It’s a big ask and we can’t do everything, but we shall certainly try. At the same time we will seek to ensure the Foundation carries out its duties and maintains a proper business-like approach to all of our commercial activities.
“I should like to thank Colin for his sterling work as Chair over such a long period. He leaves the Foundation in good shape.”
Handing over to Pam, Colin Chatfield commented: “I’ve really enjoyed my time as Chairman of the Foundation and am proud of what we have achieved during my time in the role. I oversaw a number of transformative projects for the Foundation, including the redevelopment of the Broadway Cinema & Theatre and Studio & Gallery venues. I wish Pam the best of luck in the future and will continue to support the Foundation from my role as a Governor.”
Graham Fisher, Chief Executive of the Heritage Foundation added: “Colin has played a huge part in the Foundation’s work in recent years and on behalf of the Foundation, I’d like to thank him for his service to the Letchworth community.
“This is an exciting time for the Foundation, having just launched a new strategy, moved to a new building and now with our first female chair. I’m delighted to welcome Pam to the role and excited to work with her to make some of these ideas come to fruition.”
Pam’s tenure as Chair begins on 22 March 2019. To find out more about the Foundation’s Governors or our Governance model, visit our Governance page.
