The interesting thing about monitoring the City Status bid for all the towns is that you notice on things, there seems to be an awful amount of name dropping going on. From Will Young to Status Quo! Now I thought that our column about stars that have grown up in Reading shows that we also have a lot of talented people out there. But lets be fair now, this is completely missing the point of the whole City Status Competition. The competition is about which City deserves to be recognised for outgrowing its “town” label and actually more fits in the catagory of a City.
Now lets just look at Reading. Reading is a major junction of the national rail network…If you want to get anywhere, you are 99% guarnteed that you will be passing through Reading. Also, we are 30 minutes from London and Heathrow and we also house 2 large sports teams in Reading and London Irish. Not just that, but as far as culture goes, Reading is surely the most diverse town in the UK. I read something a while ago in which it said that Reading has the largest variety of languages spoken in any UK town or City. Culture wise, we have just had the Reading Festival, which is now a must for any serious music fan. We also offer up one of the best shopping locations in the south, which hundreds of thousands flock to each year. We also have a population larger than the whole of Samoa and a University nearly as old as Austrailia! There is a lot here, and is fast becoming like London, where there is something for everyone to enjoy.
You may ask yourself why we are talking about a City competition which does not even get concluded until 2012? Well the answer is simple, other towns have already started their bid, and this is no micky mouse competition, it will have a massive impact on the winners econmic growth and would lead to investment and national recognition.
So back the bid, send us your stories and lets talk up our town and win this competition.