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The HISTORY of REDDITCH New Town

From the earliest moment there have been Liaison Groups with the Local Authorities.
These have provided a useful contact, though inevitably the authorities have not seen
eye to eye on every matter. It is to be hoped that the public authorities will look to the
future in not too parochial a way. Redditch is now a town that has a great deal of
influence in the region, with even greater potential for growth and it is important that
growth is not stultified, whether it be economic or physical. The prosperity of Redditch
can only help the West Midlands Region and give a much needed regeneration to the
regional economy. No town can afford to stand still and must be capable of coping and
encouraging both growth and change.

The Corporation has been a happy ship and the working groups have provided both
excellent corporate advice to the management team and given good interdisciplinary
experience for professional officers. Four members of staff have received Queen's
Honours in recognition of their work and six have given twenty years or more of service
each.

We have been graced by formal visits of very many national figures, most significantly
in 1983 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The significance of our activities has been
studied by a considerable number of foreign dignitaries and students.

Our presence in the town has touched residents both new and old, for better or worse
they might say and certainly we have been the source of much local journalism-turning
decidedly more favourable to us in the years following the announcement of our demise.
We have endeavoured over the last remaining three years to emphasise a degree of
normalisation and one measure of our success will be indicated if our demise is noted
hardly at all.
But the Development Corporation cannot go without the story being told and Mr Gordon
Anstis, serving as a Board Member for 20 years, has compiled and written "The History
of Redditch New Town 1964-1985" in which he has amplified REDDITCH-SUCCESS IN
THE HEART OF ENGLAND.

Your predecessors were right to designate Redditch a New Town and right to establish
a Corporation to carry out the work. Such progress, such standards and such a town
could not have been so developed in any other way and in such a relatively short period.
The Corporation's work gives credit to this form of central direction when harnessed to
a combination of public and private activity. Redditch Development Corporation is proud
of its work; the co-operation of Board and Staff, and the dedication shown by them,
have proved a tremendous stimulant in achieving the Corporation's task and whilst
recognising the failures and shortcomings, nevertheless, all leave with a sense of a job
well done.

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