text of a letter from Chief Executive of CABE to the Chairman of Leatherhead AHEAD, 29 August 2003

Paula Sabine
Chairman
Leatherhead AHEAD
Our Ref: EX6/4/7

Dear Paula

Leatherhead High Street

Thanks for your letter of 21 July, following my comments on BBC 1 and Radio 4.

A lesson of this particular episode is don't believe everything you read in or hear on media. In both cases, my comments were heavily edited, so that they reflected extreme positions. The reality is that Leatherhead's High Street was never the worst street in Britain; it was the worst of those that the BBC chose to show on that evening. Similarly, while it is true the High Street has improved significantly since last year, there is still an awful lot to be done. We have recently visited Leatherhead and have conveyed to the council all the different elements that we are still concerned about:

the gateways to the town are still very poor;

there is a profusion of metal barriers, grotty plant holders, poor paving etc;

as your letter notes, while the lighting has improved, the lights have not and generally the street furniture remain irrelevant to the context in which it sits;

the feature at the bottom of the High Street, with or without water, doesn't really work and contributes to the sense that the High Street is cut off from the key gateways to the town; we're not suggesting that the council will or should remove the feature, but it does make it all the more important that the gateway areas are enhanced, including outside the Theatre.

What I am certain of is that there is no point trading any more blows within the media. Any further progress will be achieved through partnership, and we therefore encourage Leatherhead AHEAD to work closely with the council to achieve further improvements as resources become available.

I think the best approach now is to adopt some individual projects, such as the area outside the theatre or the route from the station to the town centre, and really work on some substantial improvements in the environment.

Jon Rouse
Chief Executive

Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment