Town is 'looking ahead with confidence' to tackle a changing future

At its birth the unique selling point of Stevenage was that it was a new town, and the first one in the country at that.

It was cutting edge and it was different and the town moved forward with a confidence initially that reflected this.

My parents moved to Stevenage in the early sixties from East London, the switch by Platignum pens and similar companies bringing many others into the town. At this time, and even into the seventies, a difficult decade for the rest of the country, Stevenage seemed to prosper.

The mantra that it was a ‘town in the country’ reflected the remarkable win/win of this concept. People moving in from tough inner cities, or even worse, who had been bombed out and unable to resettle, had their own house and garden - and were a five minute drive (or as was mostly the case, a half hour walk) into countryside which many had never truly experienced before.

No wonder the concept worked. And perhaps the tarnish only really began to come off because the new town ceased to be new. The sudden sense that the town, although still pedestrianised and very unusual was now a little brutalist and dated combined with the tough economic times of the 1980s.

Jobs were lost and even in paradise and a change was needed.

I started my media career as a junior reporter on The Comet in 1988 and from that point to my days as editor, talk of regeneration has always been close to the surface.

As the out of town shopping culture grew it became clear that the ultra pedestrianised, ultra shop filled, non-night time economy design of our current town centre was going to be left behind.

And so the ‘major new plans’ stories began. There are plenty of copies of The Comet with front page artist impressions and excited exclusives of how the town was going to look. That they failed to come to fruition was not a black mark against the town, more that these coincided with another economic downturn.

But now it really is happening. Not just plans, but actual building work. And is this to revive a town on its knees? Well just take a look at the industry and the jobs which are here and have been here for the past 30 years. Glaxo, MBDA, Airbus, booming bioscience, even the Wine Society have stayed the course with the town for decades.

The bus interchange, which is being upgraded as part of Stevenage's regeneration (Image: Karyn Haddon)

So in fact it’s the opposite, the regeneration is bringing the town centre to a standard not just demanded by its citizens, but to be reflective of the world class industry which has flourished here for some time.

The age of 75 may be a grand old one, certainly time to look back and reflect on a life well-lived, but in a town or city sense it’s merely the blink of an eye.

Many places may have had little perceptible difference in this time, for Stevenage it marks a period in which a town has literally grown up from nothing, has created an identity and forged a number of generations of a population.

As the town ages, it’s also pleasing to see that the tastes of Stevenage have also matured. Stevenage Old Town - or the High Street, depending on your point of view, now plays a major role in commerce and hospitality for the whole of Stevenage.

Stevenage Old Town (Image: Archant)

If the feeling ‘across the bridge’ that in the first instance the aim was to make the new town self sufficient, that is certainly not the case now. The Old Town is a destination to live, work and spend leisure time. Fittingly it has become a cherished extension of the new town which grew up next to it and which threatened to engulf it.

So now looking ahead to a centenary in just 25 years, what does the future hold for the town? If you’d asked me this just a decade ago then it seemed Stevenage was mired in a struggle to break free of new town architecture and to find a way in the modern world of industry.

We now have a town which is the second best in the country to start a business, one which is being regenerated to cope with modern ways of living and which is fast becoming a scientific and industrial hub.

Perfection? Of course not. Despite being the first new town Stevenage has always suffered from the effects of national social issues and global problems.

But Stevenage is now a town which is looking ahead with confidence and ready to tackle a future which is ever changing. It did it once back in 1946, there’s no reason to doubt that it will lead the way again.