Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has been successful in its second bid for Hatfield to become a 'Portas Pilot' town. The revised bid was made on behalf of Hatfield town centre's town team. Hatfield wants to bring together its different areas using money from the Portas Pilot project. Hatfield was selected as one of 15 additional pilot towns, which will share £1.5m as part of a government scheme to regenerate the high streets.
The plan was given a thumbs up by retail expert Mary Portas. Hatfield received roughly £100,000, which the Hatfield Town Team wants to use to rally the "connectivity" between different areas. The Hatfield town team mainly focused on five key areas. They were:
1.Markets and Social enterprise - including enhancing and refreshing the market to increase number of visitors and increasing the number of new stalls.
2. Entertainment and Events - including creating an events space in the town centre and investing in transportable undercover staging.
3. Shops and Advertising - including renovating a vacant unit into a Town Team shop linking tourism and providing marketing and business backing.
4. Connections and Transport links - expanding the University of Hertfordshire's 'smart card' travel project to include top-ups/ loyalty points and much more.
5. Environmental Enhancements.
During this exciting time, The Labour Party has attacked this positive change for Hatfield. Welwyn Hatfield Labour politicians were being pressed to distance themselves from their national party with a senior Labour Frontbencher criticising Hatfield Town Centre for no apparent reason. Labour's Shadow Communities Secretary Hilary Benn, who has frequently probed the financial funding provided to Hatfield by the Mary Portas High Street development organisation, criticised the project. In response to Hilary Benn’s constant unrequired comments, local government Minister Kris Hopkins said, "It is very disappointing that the right hon. Member continually wishes to knock and snipe at the Hatfield Town Team. It was a very deserving bid and it has gone from strength to strength since its award." The minister then went on to talk about how successful the scheme has been and how its working like a charm in order to give a new life in to the town centre.
Now local MP Grant Shapps has called upon the local Labour Leader Kieran Thorpe to apologise to the people of Hatfield on behalf of Labour for challenging Hatfield's right to the regeneration of cash by stating,
"Everyone in Hatfield appreciates that it was desperately in need of regeneration. Hatfield won the Mary Portas bid completely independently and on merit. It's completely wrong to sit back and allow Hatfield to be attacked by Labour in Parliament and I want the Labour leader locally to write to Hilary Benn and tell him where to get off. If he won't do this for Hatfield, then he can no longer claim to be standing up for local people. Someone has to tell Labour nationally that they are simply insulting our town and local people."
Regardless of Labour’s insensitive comments, Hatfield has already achieved so much with special thanks to the Portas Pilot funding who made all of this with our grasp. Thanks to the community’s efforts and Portas Pilot funding we now have:
1. New performance stage for outdoor events.
2. Bright new market stalls for the Farmers Market and the General Market.
3. A very special Hatfield Website.
4. Hatfield Town Hub- a community hub and information point in Hatfield Town Centre.
5. Free parking in Hatfield town centre maintained.
For more information on Hatfield Town Centre go to the new website at www.hatfieldtown.co.uk