WARRINGTON Civic Society is backing the town’s 2021 City of Culture bid.
The Civic Society, which seeks to preserve and promote town’s heritage, improve its built environment and make Warrington somewhere we can all be proud of, has added its voice to the bid for 2021:
Chairman John Shipley, speaking on behalf of members, said:”The Civic Society supports the ambition for Warrington to become the UK City of Culture for 2021.
“We welcome the Borough Council’s recognition that culture and heritage should be celebrated for the important contribution they make to the development of Warrington and its people. We hope that the bid will be an opportunity to build local pride and strengthen the sense of community. ”
The winning bid, to be announced in December, will be the third holder of the title following on from Derry/Londonderry in 2013 and the current holder; Hull.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced a £3 million commitment to the successful bidder for 2021, and those recipients that follow to boost local heritage.
In Hull a campaign for Revealing Hull’s Heritage is asking for grant applications of £3,000-£10,000 for projects with a clear heritage focus.
6 Comments
If Warrington does win will that then make us officially a ‘city’ or will still be still be a ‘town’ but with the status of being a ‘city of culture’. It’s all a bit confusing to me to be honest…but nothing new there though eh 😉
Dizzy – I have written dozens of stories over the years explaining that in economic terms Warrington is classified as a city – surely you haven’t turned into one of those who only read headlines and look at pictures 😉 Warrington is a city in all but name and hopefully a successful bid will lead to “official” city status in charge of our own coffers in the not too distant future. 🙂
No need for sarcasm Gary and no I don’t just read headlines and look at pictures…although from now on I might lol. Not my fault I’m thick and simply don’t understand all the ‘City Status’ stuff….but hey not to worry 😉
The council and this publication in the past have referred to the Outlook for Cities Outlook reports by the Centre for Cities. The term cities is used by them as a synonym for Primary Urban Area PUA which needs to have a daytime economic population above a threshold which is currently 135,000.
Real city status is granted by the monarch using Letters Patent. The Centres for Cities criteria are nothing like the criteria in the official cities competitions, the last ones are here http://old.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/Civic-Honours-Entry-Guidelines.pdf
The overall requirement is “…. should be vibrant, welcoming communities with interesting histories and distinct identities.”
Given that the competitions are run in conjunction with Royal Events such as Jubilees (Derby was the Silver Jubilee City; Brighton, Wolverhampton and Inverness were the Millennium cities; Chelmsford, Perth and St Asaph were Diamond Jubilee cities; Preston, Newport, Stirling, Lisburn and Newry at the Golden Jubilee). So it is likely the next completion will be a Coronation or the Platinum jubilee. However, the criteria are not really economic and Warrington is certainly not yet a city in all but name.
The overall requirement is “…. should be vibrant, welcoming communities with interesting histories and distinct identities.” Sums the borough of Warrington up to a tee!
I suppose it could help gain city status, that would then make things a bit clearer. We are bigger than six of the other bidders.