Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation publishes its new three-year plan, Making Letchworth a great place for everyone.
The plan outlines three main objectives that the Foundation aims to achieve between now and 2021:
They are to:
- Improve life chances for people in Letchworth
- Ensure Letchworth continues to be great place to live
- Ensure Letchworth continues to be a great place to work and do business
The new strategy is based on making better use of the Foundation’s existing assets and resources to make life in Letchworth better for everyone who lives, works and goes to school here. From the collections and community services to the grants programmes and its venues; the new strategy is about making the most of all these resources for everyone: sharing and celebrating all the Foundation’s assets and resources with every single person in the town.
This strategy builds on the 2018 report, A view of life in Letchworth today, where the Foundation shared its findings that not everyone in Letchworth was benefitting from everything the town has to offer.
Graham Fisher, Chief Executive of the Heritage Foundation, commented: “Having worked at Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation for 18 months, I firmly believe that living or working in Letchworth Garden City is something to celebrate; from the array of cultural assets and family facilities; to our unique heritage and wealth of community groups and activities that all contribute to making Letchworth special. Our new strategy seeks to build on this. As a Foundation we are privileged to be the custodians of some very special spaces, places and resources and we want everyone in the town to benefit from them.”
The strategy includes ambitious yet achievable plans to Improve life chances for people in Letchworth over the next three years. The Letchworth Creative Learning programme for children will be in partnership with local schools and developing curriculum-based learning enhanced by the Foundation’s cultural and creative assets: Broadway Cinema and Theatre, Broadway Gallery and Garden City Collection.
New welfare and advice services and a bespoke development programme will be created to improve life chances for families and young children.
For older people, a new wellbeing policy, in addition to continued development of Active Letchworth, will be developed.
The Foundation is committed to widening the appeal of and participation in, all of its cultural and leisure assets so that everyone in Letchworth can enjoy them and benefit from them.
New homes will help to Make Letchworth a great place to live, and the Foundation will be increasing the amount of private rented accommodation in the town, as well as encouraging housing partners to offer a wider range of options for people who are not eligible for social housing. The Foundation is also working with the Royal Institute of British Architects on the Reimagining the Garden City design competition to create sustainable new homes for Letchworth.
As the world’s first garden city, Letchworth was originally designed to be a wonderful place to work and do business. The town is already a centre for pioneering technology, creativity and industrial innovation. Over the next three years, the Foundation aims to Make Letchworth a great place to work and do business, and this includes attracting new businesses to the town, creating opportunities for people to develop and improve their own skills, and developing more business partnership opportunities to create long-term and sustainable economic growth in Letchworth.
