As The City Status bids are being finished rubber stamped for Friday’s Deadline, lets have a quick recap on what is involved in the bids for City Status at the 2012 Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations.
This link http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/honours/7610.aspx explains who can make the bids, current UK Cities, and answers some common questions people have surrounding what a town needs to qualify for the honour.
So what are the guidelines? What do the council have to do in order to comply with the conditions of entry? Well the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport have drawn up a set of guidelines detailing what the official entry should look like, which is in this link Civic-Honours-Entry-Guidelines.
The Key points for the Entry are as follows:
- Entries must be made by the local authority
- Entries must be submitted by 4pm on Friday 27th May 2011
- An Introduction of NO MORE THAN 5 PAGES explaining why the area deserves City Status, with reference to its age, distinct identity, history, traditions, famous residence, and it’s association with Royalty.
- A profile of the area of NO MORE THAN 20 PAGES detailing statistics of the area to assist in understanding its bid in relation to other areas
- UP TO 50 PHOTOGRAPHS of permanent features of the area rather than people and events
- 2 MAPS showing the area and the “City Centre”
- An account of the range, variety and appeal of community interest groups in the area along with membership details
- Examples of matters of interest and information such as:
- Tourist attractions and places of interest
- Visitor Accommodation
- Public Green Spaces
- Major Events and if they are supported by the local authority
- Sport and Leisure facilities and if they are supported by the local authority
- The Voluntary Sector and if they are supported by the local authority
- Shopping Centres
- The Government do not want Local Authorities to incur costs during the compilation of their bid.
So as you can see, there is a huge amount to consider when submitting this bid. We have heard several times, people asking why are Reading going for it in the first place? Well there are numerous reasons. This honour is only bestowed on minimal Royal Occasions, so therefore the “UK Cities Club” is an exclusive one as the past competition were 2000, and 2002 being the most recent. As there is likely to be only ONE winner from the UK Reading faces stiff competition.
The winner will be chosen by Her Majesty, has been passed from the Lord Chancellor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council, Nick Clegg, assisted by the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, Mark Harper. There are other members of the Government who will be involved in assessing the credentials and merits of each bid, and the winner is expected to be announced in the early months of 2012.
The winner will get increased publicity, increased economic investment, tourism, amongst many other hidden rewards for winning this competition. Reading is the largest UK town that is not a City, and that is just to start.
If you live in Reading, you will know that it has so much to offer the residence, not to mention the numerous people of the South who flock to the town for shopping, leisure and nights out.
At the City of Reading, we have submitted the People’s Bid, which was a compilation of views, stories and photos from the people of the town which we passed to the bid team earlier this year. Now what we are asking for is support in showing the world what it is like to live in Reading. If you wish to help your town, then click here to become a contributor and write your stories about interesting events and fact about the town and share them with everyone!
We all need to take pride in where we live and show the rest of the UK that we truly deserve the City title, remember people this is our Town, let’s make it our City!