Every little helps

We all know how lucky we are to live in Welwyn Garden City. You may be surprised to learn, however, that many people throughout Europe know this too and want to spread the word across the continent about how special garden cities really are.

Over the last 9 months the Trust has been talking to organisations in both Paris and Liege about making a bid for significant funding from the EU. The idea behind the bid is to use Welwyn Garden City as the example of what can be achieved when a garden city works well. We need to find out what exactly makes a garden city special so as to aid other ‘garden cities’ and new towns in Europe to reach the same quality of life.

The EU has launched a programme to do just this and the Trust was invited to participate. Much to our surprise we were the only UK organisation to express an interest and so now we are the sole UK representative on this hugely exciting project to rekindle the garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard.

The project will involve

• Examining the key features of garden cities in the UK and identifying those that can be repeated elsewhere.
• Investigating approaches to involving the local community in St Denis, just north of Paris, with explaining and supporting the revitalisation of their garden city.
• Looking at the best modern techniques for refurbishing run down mining community housing in Belgium to achieve the most sustainable housing possible.

Like all projects involving grants of money we need to make a financial contribution from the Trust. Our UK partners to date include the Town & Country Planning Association and the University of Hertfordshire and discussions are taking place with others.

If you can help us spread the word with even the most modest contributions to help win significant EU funding to bring the Garden City Movement back to the forefront of modern town planning that would be greatly appreciated. Any donation will be gratefully received, you can find a suitable form by clicking here.

For more information on the Garden Cities Project , or the Trust in general please email or call us using the Contact Us facility.