We need to anticipate what major changes might happen or are going to be needed over the next two decades to be included in the Hoddesdon Town Plan which has been produced by Broxbourne Council.

We believe there are three main priorities which will need addressing:

Aerial view of Hoddesdon

  1. The north end of the High Street needs to be re-opened to traffic and short term free parking spaces introduced. The current road through has a bend in it forcing pedestrians to have to cross it at some point when walking from north to south. The road needs to be re-located back to the west where it was sited previously. This will create a safe wide pedestrian area to the east allowing the market stalls to be sited all together rather than split up into three areas as at present. The war memorial and clock tower would then be linked together along with the newly re-sited Samaritan Woman statue to create a new public square in heart of the town.
  2. Changes need to be made to the ring road to attract traffic and visitors back in to the High Street rather than diverting them around and away from the town. This would require new signage on all approach roads; an eye-catching "gateway" feature at the north end of Amwell Street; the road junctions at the north and south end of the High Street need to be completely re-designed and existing underpasses replaced by re-located pedestrian crossings. A new multi-storey car park could be built on the unused land to the east of the Essex Road/ Charlton Way roundabout junction and a walkway link provided over the road towards the town centre.
  3. In the short term we will press Broxbourne Council to work closely with The Tower Centre management to attract new tenants to the development for the overall benefit of the town. However, the majority of shopping centres of this age and design around the country have already been demolished to make way for more appropriate modern schemes more suited to modern retail requirements, and we believe this will inevitably happen with The Tower Centre too. As a community we therefore need to start thinking now about what kind of scheme should replace it.