Thank you Handside: Estate Management Scheme proves Popular with Welwyn Hatfield Residents

12.58.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 19th Sep 2008

Councillor Tony Skottowe says a big thank you to Welwyn Hatfield residents. Says Tony: "Thanks to many organisations, including the WGC Society, WG Heritage Trust and the pleas in our recent Focus the response has been considerable and significantly in favour of relaunching the scheme and making it work."

The Cabinet Planning and Transportation Panel met Thursday 18th September to approve the proposals. The meeting was open to the public and starts at 7:30 in the Council Chamber in Campus West.

During the scheme Tony Skottowe of the Liberal Democrat's remarked on the beauty of the town and expressed his happiness to see that there would be some control over the way people manage their homes in order to maintain the beauty and harmony that makes Welwyn Garden City a town that is 'of a piece'. "It is the way the lines are arranged and allow the eye to travel that makes the beauty of the town. In some places, although everyone has put in Georgian replacement windows, they are not consistent in their lines - each one is different." As well as offering opportunities for enforcement, the scheme will allow residents to consult and receive gentle guidance about how preserve the beauty of their properties when making improvements to their homes.

The Estate Management Scheme, begun in 1972, is a scheme that gives the council the power to enforce some of the principles of town planning that have helped to retain the beauty and individuality of the town and to retain its character.