As we moved into October, news of an anti-speeding campaign calling for 20mph limits was welcomed by WH residents who had become increasingly concerned about road safety and people driving at excess speeds post-lockdown, and the owners of pubs in Welwyn and Datchworth reacted to the introduction of the 10pm curfew for the hospitality industry.
The Save Symondshyde campaign group responded to proposals from WHBC to increase the size of a proposed new settlement on the site, and land at Panshanger Aerodrome was sold off in the first stage of a plan to build 650 homes.
Former Hatfield headteacher Yvonne Davis spearheaded a national campaign to send every school in the UK a copy of ‘100 Great Black Britons’, and De Havilland Primary School joined two secondary schools in the borough to become an academy, joining the Danes Educational Trust alongside Chancellor’s and Onslow St Audrey’s.
An official hearing found that Hatfield Town Council leader Cllr Lenny Brandon had breached the code of conduct by bullying a senior employee of he town council, and WGC railway station made the shortlist of the World Cup of Stations 2020.
Local celebrity Mike Izzard, better known as Nast Hyde Halt Mike, helped marathon runners stranded by floodwater on the Alban Way by ferrying them across a 300 yards stretch of water in his kayak.
We launched our #ShopLocal campaign as independent retailers heralded a make-or-break Christmas in the wake of pandemic pressures biting home. This put the focus on dozens of local businesses to highlight how they were coping during the pandemic, raise awareness of their online offering, and generally encourage people to spend their money on their doorstep.
Potters Bar teenager Lauren Lisk was named one of the top young poets in the UK, and following months of preparation and demolition works, ground was officially broken at High View in Hatfield to deliver 146 new homes, a retail centre, community facilities and amenities.
A golf day in memory of Cameron Hill, who died of multiple stab wounds in Hatfield back in June 2019, raised more than £2,500 towards raising awareness of knife crime and supporting young people.
The family-run Beales Hotel in Hatfield closed its doors after 56 years after the site was sold to a building firm, and survivors, friends and relatives remembered the four people who lost their lives on the 20th anniversary of the Hatfield rail crash.
Pubs and catering businesses across WH rallied together to feed children who would normally receive free school meals as part of the national campaign organised by Manchester United star Marcus Rashford, and
Georgia Hague, originally from WGC, was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list recognising her campaigning eforts to raise awareness of balcony falls, after her friend fell to her death from a Magaluf apartment block in 2018.
Moving into November and a second lockdown, we reported how police officer Warren Potter was sacked for kicking a man in the head during an arrest in Hatfield, and Welwyn mum Ann Chappell, originally from California, bravely revealed how she would be voting for Donald Trump in the US Elections.
The new pandemic restrictions forced a different approach to this year’s Remembrance Day commemorations, but communities across Welwyn Hatfield still managed to honour our fallen heroes, while more than £1,000 was raised for the NSPCC and dozens of tributes paid in memory of the late Mayor of Hertsmere Cllr Cynthia Barker.
We revealed how nearly 300 homes may built on the former BioPark site in Broadwater Road, WGC, and how the successful worldwide roll-out of a new cancer drug produced by Hatfield pharmaceutical plant Eisai resulted in an investment of £11.5m, and interviewed MasterChef: The Professionals semi-finalist Philli Armitage-Mattin, who grew up in WGC.
Mum Katarzyna Morzy, who survived domestic abuse as a child, walked 27 miles from Hatfield to Slough to raise money for others going through the same experience, and there was a backlash after Hatfield House announced plans to charge residents £50 to use its grounds.
WH borough councillors agreed to 13,277 new homes in the draft Local Plan, including 2,000 at the Wheat Quarter and Bio PArk developments, and new Hertsmere mayor Cllr Alan Plancey was sworn into office following the sad death of his predecessor.
As we reached the end of what was unlike any other year in the newspaper’s long history, we revealed how a petition by TV presenter Mary-Ann Ochota calling for public access to green space in Hatfield Park received more than 1,000 signatures, and a multi-million pound recycling centre was approved for the borough.
One of the most innovative ideas of the 2020 was in response to government guidelines over pubs having to offer customers a “substantial meal”. The Eight Bells in Hatfield created the ‘crap sandwich’ - cheap bread, ham or cheese, served with lettuce and cucumber for just £1.
Rock ‘n’ roll legend Marty Wilde, dad of ‘80s pop sensation Kim and a resident of Tewin, became one of the first celebrities in the world to receive the Covid jab, while University of Herts students took part in two weeks of coronavirus testing before being allowed home for Christmas, and elderly residents who had been waiting for the end of the pandemic to socialise again were devastated to hear that Hatfield’s Friendship House was at risk of closure.
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