So why are all of the council in the UK taking time out to put together a bid to try and push their towns into the next league of UK Locations?
The City Status Competition is part of the Celebrations for Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in which 1 town in the whole of the UK will be awarded City Status.
The beauty of this competition is the Government have specified that NO council money should be spent on promoting each town, the bid should be simply 5 A4 pages, 50 photographs and 2 maps.
So this means, and rightly so, that every aspiring town in the land no matter what it’s current econmic situation, can put its hand up and say “What about us”.
After the outstanding success of the Royal wedding of Prince William to Miss Kate Middleton in which communities across the UK held street parties and came together to celebrate this competition is another reason to be proud of where we are from.
At the street party I attended, one of the residents said that in 11 years he had never had a full conversation with his neighbour, and sure enough, by the end of that day…he had. These occasions give us the opportunity for the community to get together to celebrate a common cause.
Due to this bid not being a PR exercise in which banners, badges and expensive events have been put on, the winning town will be the one that unites and works together to share it’s assets and people with the UK.
But as their is only going to be 1 winner, what will happen to the people who have worked hard and put their hearts into promoting their town?
Well, as per the Royal Wedding, in some parts of the UK today there is perceived to be a lack of community spirit. So this competition given to us by Her Majesty, gives every person in every aspiring town the chance to celebrate where they are from, and why they love that place.
The City of Reading seeks to do this for the Town of Reading. Our motto is “by the people…for the people” and we aim to give everyone in the town a voice to share a fond memory they have of the town, something positive they are doing or something that they are going to do.
These type of competitions are misinterpreted as a rivalry scenario in which towns seek to out-do each other, but in Reading we do not see it as this, but as an opportunity to share out great culture with the UK and celebrate our Heritage, aspirations and future.
If you want to support Reading’s bid, why not write an article on the City of Reading Website by clicking here to register as a writer?