THE NEW TOWNS

3

As an illustration of the consequences of this we may take the fine new
hall in Queen’s Square in the Adeyfield neighbourhood of Hemel Hempstead.
This has a central hall, used for dances, fashion shows and trade union branch
meetings, and two smaller rooms, suitable for committees and smaller groups.
which can be used for sitting out or refreshment purposes when there is a
big occasion in the larger hall. It is admirably designed to serve the needs
of the many community bodies in the neighbourhood. Permission to build
this, however, was obtained only if it could cover its own cost; other neighbourhoods
 have so far had to make do with converted premises, often ex-Army
 huts.
The hall cost £23,000. The money was borrowed by the Corporation at
4% per cent., or at an annual rate of 4.66 per cent. if allowance is made for
capital repayment over sixty years. (The annual charge is £1,071, or £64,000
over 60 years!) It thus requires a weekly income of £20 merely to cover
interest and capital charges, while maintenance costs run at about the same
figure. Under the Act, the Corporation is obliged to find £40 a week in
rental from this hall, or about £7 for every week-night. This would have
meant that charges for the large hall would have been prohibitive for many
of the local organisations for whose use it was built, and that even the small
rooms would have cost up to a pound for a few hours in the evening. This
policy, in fact, would have meant that the hall and rooms would have gone
unlet many nights in the year, and the project would have been failing in
its purpose. The solution, which followed a good deal of local controversy,
was that the Corporation itself turned dance promoter, and pre-empted the
best night of the week. Though local organisations which wish to run dances
feel annoyed that Saturdays are always booked for the Corporation dance,
as well as alternate Fridays, this policy has enabled the Corporation to let
the hall and committee rooms below their economic rent and thus make it
possible for them to be used by local organisations on four or five nights a
week.

Paying the Price of Parsimony

Such restriction upon material provision for amenities is a serious
problem in all the New Towns. (There are similar difficulties about the
provision of playing fields, for which the Corporations have been willing to
provide land and, in some cases, lay out; the problem is revenue for upkeep.)
The most telling comment on all this came in the Stevenage Corporation’s
report for 1953-54, though all the other Corporations take the same view.
Stating that ‘ the supply of suitable premises lags a long way behind,” and
pointing out that the principal difficulty is one of finance—in addition to
the points made above, capital grants from local education authorities have
been severely cut since 1949—the Corporation reports that it has . . .
. . . experienced much difficulty in obtaining the sanction of your
Ministry for the erection of community buildings under the New Towns
Act. Increasingly, in the result, has the rapidly growing population
had to be content with unsatisfactory makeshifts. This is destructive
to that spirit of voluntary enterprise upon which the organisation of
communal activities so largely depends.’