Stevenage was Britain’s first designated New Town following the New Towns Act in 1946. At that time it was a small market town of about 6,200 people, but now has a population of over 80,000. The New Town was planned, designed and developed by the government-appointed Development Corporation. Since then over two dozen New Towns in this country and many more abroad have followed this philosophy.

Stevenage is in northern Hertfordshire and within easy reach of a number of neighbouring towns, including Hitchin, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, and many villages. It is about 30 miles north of London with excellent road and rail links. The town is served by both Inter-City (Kings Cross-Edinburgh) and Network South East (to Peterborough and Cambridge) rail services and central London is only a 25-minute journey away. The A1(M) motorway offers good north-south road links, with the town only 20 minutes from the M25 to the south. The M1 at Luton is within easy reach, as is London Luton airport.

Stevenage has a comprehensive road network with ample car parking facilities and a world famous and safely separated cycleway system. The bus station in the Town Centre provides the hub for regular bus services to and from all parts of the town. The Railway Station sits between the Town Centre and Leisure/Arts Centre on one side, and the Leisure Park and main industrial area on the other.

Stevenage offers a wide range of shopping facilities, and is the major retail centre serving the northern half of Hertfordshire. The fully-pedestrianised Town Centre includes the Westgate Centre, a modern indoor shopping mall, and the recently completed Forum development offers 140,000 square feet of new shopping floorspace. Most of the big high street names are present including Marks and Spencer, BHS, Littlewoods, Boots, WH Smith and a Tesco Superstore. Sainsburys has two superstores on the outskirts of Stevenage and Waitrose is present in the Old Town High Street. ASDA and Stevenage College have entered into an agreement to establish a major new store adjacent to the Town Centre retail area.

There are more specialist facilities in the High Street and a wide range of DIY, Furniture, Electrical and Household retail warehouse stores in three retail parks in the south of the town. A multi-million-pound regeneration scheme is planned for the Town Centre over the next few years, including the transport links mentioned above.

The main industrial area on the western side of the town is separated from the town centre and most of the residential areas by the railway and is accessed by excellent road, footpath and cycleway links. There is a second industrial area in the north-east corner of the town. The employment base of the town is excellent. The largest employers include GlaxoSmithKline (European medicines research centre), Matra BAe Dynamics, EADS Astrium, IFR (formerly Marconi Instruments), Fujitsu, John Lewis, Mastercare, the District Land Registry, Norwich Union, the Lister Hospital and Stevenage Borough and Hertfordshire County Councils.

Individual residential neighbourhoods have been developed as the town has grown. Three neighbourhoods are supported by Single Regeneration Budget Funding (from SRB5), whilst a fourth is the location of a Pathfinder Community Renewal Project. The oldest estate in the New Town is the subject of negotiations for redevelopment of the area, affecting over 150 dwellings. The Borough Council is landlord to 27% of the town’s households and there is a very long waiting list for Council accommodation. There is no designated key-worker housing.

Within each neighbourhood are a variety of dwellings and a range of local facilities including shops, a community centre, and medical and dental surgeries. The neighbourhood healthcare facilities augment the work of the town’s Lister Hospital, a 500-bed modern general hospital, with specialist maternity and psychiatric wings and a leading outpatients’ oncology unit. A new residential neighbourhood, providing up to a further 8,600 homes, may be developed extending Stevenage to the West of the A1(M) over the next 15 years. The proposal is the subject of national debate although planning consent has been granted for an initial development in the north-west of the town, close to the Old Town.

Stevenage has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the country, and a higher-than-average rate of family and relationship breakdown. While unemployment is below the national average it is nevertheless the highest in Hertfordshire. The employment prospects for many local people in recent years have been uncertain, and are largely based in retail and low-paid service jobs. There is a low-level of expectation and career-aspirations amongst school children and their parents despite the hi-tech nature of both national and international industry and business in the town.

The town has eight secondary schools (including one Roman Catholic) and twenty-nine primary schools. The seven Community Secondary schools have combined in a DfES Pathfinder Initiative for the 14-19 Curriculum. Further education is available at the Stevenage Campus of North Herts College, which offers a wide range of courses. The Queen recently opened the college’s striking new buildings, to mark their status as the most ambitious F.E. building project in the country.

Stevenage has excellent leisure facilities. The Arts and Leisure Centre incorporates a 500-seat theatre of better than West End standards, a large sports hall, indoor bowls hall, squash courts, gymnasium, multi-purpose sports areas, arts and crafts facilities, a children’s crèche, and many other features. These facilities are all run by Stevenage Leisure Limited, a Company set up by the Council, as are other leisure facilities in the town including the Golf Course, Athletics facility (with a covered stand planned) and Swimming Pool. It is also the home of the Football Conference’s Stevenage Boro, “the best-supported club outside the football league.”

In addition to the leisure facilities provided by the Council and/or Stevenage Leisure Ltd, there are others available, such as squash courts, keep-fit groups and sports clubs. These facilities are to be found throughout Stevenage – in schools, community centres, the college and in purpose-built centres, including private gyms and health and fitness clubs, Stevenage Cricket and Hockey and Club (with thriving Junior teams and a successful Women’s Hockey Club), and Stevenage Town Rugby Club, who own and manage their own site and who have over 200 youngsters in Mini and Junior teams. Stevenage Leisure Park includes a David Lloyd fitness club, restaurants, bars, night-clubs, a bowling alley and a multiplex cinema.

The town’s award-winning museum is located in the town centre, and there is an Artists’ workshop in Fairlands Valley. Stevenage has a cyber-café, several community computer centres and a considerable number of voluntary organisations catering for all sections of the community, for all groups, and for all interests. Senior citizens and children are particularly well provided for.

Stevenage is surrounded by gently rolling countryside, and is proud of its own landscape, including 40 old established woodlands covering a total area of 370 acres, and a further 400 acres of grass land, most notably Fairlands Valley Park, which extends to some 116 acres and features a series of lakes offering angling, sailing and other water sports.