Praise as Wrexham gears up for new City of Culture bid – FOI reveals destination of grants
Wrexham’s 2025 City of Culture bid ‘raised the bar’, with councillors expressing excitement to progress a new bid for a future competition.
The comments were made during an executive board debate on a report, which contained feedback from City of Culture judges.
The document also looked at the steps needed in working towards a successful bid for UK City of Culture 2029, giving the green light to create a Cultural and Community Trust.
In a highly positive presentation Lead Member Cllr Hugh Jones recalled his previous life flying fast jets while paying tribute to a specific officer: “I have never had a pilot drive me so fast as Amanda Davies.
“We had a team of officers who were absolutely totally and utterly focused and dedicated on delivering our bid.
“It is very difficult when you have a team to say one person shone out.
“I am going to make an exception and am going to mention Amanda Davies who put in an absolutely unbelievable commitment and time, inspiration and the ideas. That is really important.
Cllr Jones cited the expected benefits of winning the last bid of being around £300m, asking ‘who knows’ what a win in 2029 could mean, adding: “What we’ve done is clearly lay out a plan – how are we going to get there in 2023 to 2025 to 2027 we are going to have a series of relevant events, and we say in the report, the signature events and how they’re going to be focused.”
The Expert Advisory Panel noted how far your bid had progressed since the initial competition stage. They felt that you had the passion and potential to offer a successful year of events as City of Culture. The final decision was not about whether one bid was better than another, rather which was judged to have the proposal, ability and readiness to deliver the biggest impact in the time available.
– Judges feedback
Referring to the informal and formal DCMS feedback of Wrexham’s bid he added: “We have had verbal feedback from the judges, and they said they were simply blown away by some of the presentations they received, and we know that they were moved to tears in a number of occasions.
“What is this? This is an investment in the future. In 2025 we want to bring the National Eisteddfod back home to Wrexham because that will increase and develop the tremendous culture and heritage that we have within our communities and develop and grow the Welsh language
“The question will be asked around the award of £125,000. We are going to spend it on four areas – firstly on community grants, secondly on play because I’ve already indicated play is an investment in our future.
“Thirdly in terms of developing international links – that doesn’t mean trips abroad before anybody jumps on that one.
“It’s developing and showing the international level of talent that we have in Wrexham and that was one area in which the judges felt that we needed to have further development.
“Fourthly, on the development of a Trust and we’ve made reference to that in the recommendations.”
Out of the councillors who spoke at the meeting there was widespread support for the report and future plans.
Cllr Malcolm King highlighted Cllr Hugh Jones personally: “I’m grateful for Hugh Jones having broken the rule that I was going to apply to myself about not mentioned the individuals.
“But as he started that, he himself, I think he was absolutely the right person at the right time doing the right job. We wouldn’t have got anywhere near as far as we do without him. You were fantastic throughout.”
Cllr King made a wide ranging speech, which when he veered into behind the scenes anecdotes that prompted some interesting looks from those attending the meeting, he recalled at the Hippodrome site “going out on Friday evening just before the judges were coming on Tuesday with a guy laying the turf, and his dismay when he said it needed three weeks to bed in”, after another verbal detour on paint he summarised of the bid, “it all came together really well “.
Wrexham Council’s Chief Executive Ian Bancroft echoed the ‘wow’ comments from some, stating: “We raised the bar for Wrexham and we raised it to a level that means we’re playing on a different playing field to be alongside places like Bradford, who had three goes – if you can count European city of Culture – and already had a permanent team and board in place.
“The reason we did it is because it is a massive benefit to Wrexham, the financial investment is huge, but it raises our aspirations for children and young people.
“What we can achieve when we act as ‘Team Wrexham’ is absolutely phenomenal. It is the reason this is so powerful in terms of culture”.
Wrexham.com has been passed a Freedom of Information response from Wrexham Council detailing some of the spend of the 2025 bid.
The FOI asked for the total amount of expenditure on the Wrexham 2025 City of Culture bid, including promotional spend, community grants, and officer time.
The response said of the first question:
Spending was split into three lists based off the FOI questions, so the £47k “miscellaneous” is not detailed.
Business Promotional Events grants
Organisation Award The Bank Bar £1,000.00 Motiv8 £1,000.00 Calon FM £1,000.00 Wrexham Area Civic Society £1,000.00 Wrexham Events Guide £500.00 Periclo £1,000.00 Wrexfest £1,000.00 The Drawing Board £500.00 Town Square £500.00 73 Degree Films £500.00 Wrexham Business Group £500.00 Erlas Victorian Walled Garden £1,000.00 Your Space £1,000.00 Make Yourself at Home £1,000.00 Anglo-Polish Society £1,000.00 Refugee Kindness £1,000.00 House Of Lux £500.00 Pride Wrexham £1,000.00 Wrexham Africa Community Group £1,000.00 Wrexham AFC Disability Liaison £1,000.00 Victoria CP School £1,000.00 All Saints School £1,000.00 Ysgol Cynddelw PTA £1,000.00 Ysgol Llanarmon DC PTA £1,000.00 Childrens University £1,000.00 Y Fenter Playscheme £1,000.00 Cefn Community Council £1,000.00 Expo’r Wal Goch £1,000.00 Craft Connect £1,000.00 Delta Academy Ladies Choir £1,000.00 The YAB Hub £1,000.00 Xplore! £1,000.00 Groundwork £1,000.00 Glyn Wylfa £500.00 Evrah Rose £1,000.00 Bitesize Theatre £1,000.00 Evrah Rose / NEW Sinfonia £1,000.00 Queensway CIC £500.00 Delta Academy £1,000.00 Neuadd Goffa Ceiriog £1,000.00 Larynx £500.00 Cantorion Rhos £500.00 Motiv8 £500.00 Canolfan Ceiriog £500.00 Chirk Carnival £500.00 Creatives Of Wrexham £1,000.00 Chirk cricket Club £500.00 Wrexham Symphony Orchestra £750.00 Theatr Yr Ifanc £500.00 Voicebox £1,000.00 Lorna Bates £1,000.00 Arts connection £1,000.00 NEW Sinfonia £1,000.00 Better Now Than jail £1,000.00 £46,250.00
Community Groups grants
Project Name /Org Proposed award 7 Craft Connect £1,000.00 8 Delta Academy Ladies Choir £1,000.00 12 The YAB Hub £1,000.00 15 Xplore! £1,000.00 17 Groundwork £1,000.00 19 Glyn Wylfa £1,000.00 22 HipHop Street Art Event £1,000.00 25 Bitesize Theatre £1,000.00 28 Evrah Rose New Sinfonia £1,000.00 32 Queensway CIC £1,000.00 33 Delta Academy £500.00 34 Neuadd Goffa Ceiriog £1,000.00 37 Larynx £1,000.00 38 Cantorion Rhos £1,000.00 39 Motiv 8 (3) £500.00 40 Canolfan Ceiriog £1,000.00 49 Chirk carnival £1,000.00 53 creatives Of Wrexham £1,000.00 54 Chirk cricket Club £500.00 56 Wrexham Symphony Orchestra £750.00 57 Theatr Yr Ifanc £500.00 61 Voicebox £1,000.00 62 Lorna Bates £1,000.00 63 Arts connection £1,000.00 64 New Sinfonia £1,000.00 66 Better Than jail £500.00 £23,250.00
Promotional Spend Jan-May only
Promotional Activity Company Cost January – May Mold Road Digital billboard Alight Media 12,250 Eagles Meadow Digital board Route Media 1,625 Digital Van Route Media 9,850 Eagles Meadow Billboard 75 Media 3300 Bellevue Billboard Vision Advertising 1750 Wrexham FC Banner Wrexham FC 15,000 Pop up roller banners Minuteman Press 5,505 Printed promo items (selfie frames, umbrellas, beer mats) Minuteman Press 2,864 Additional banners Minuteman Press 660 Outdoor banners ASAP signs 3,400 Floor stickers ASAP signs 1,494 Window vinyls/stickers ASAP signs 4,139 Correx lamp post boards ASAP signs 1,900 Poster cases and posters ASAP signs 877 Bollard covers ASAP signs 2,045 Car stickers ASAP signs 100 Baners and correx signs Excel Signs 1,320 Website design Artychoke 1,935 Window painting/decoration Painted Creations by ME 1,750 Flags Eclipse Branding/B-Loony 2,857 Installation of banners and flags Mega Electrical 865 Promotional campaign Delwyn Derrick 3,000 Radio ad Communicorp UK 2,610 Coach branding APH Signs 2,400 Facebook sponsored ads 500 Online social media monitoring Brand24 360 Love Wrexham magazine monthly ads Love Wrexham 912 North Wales magazine ad North Wales magazine 230 Insert with Council Tax letter WCBC 1,290 Internal design work WCBC 5,670 Internal printed leaflets WCBC 585 £93,043
On the staffing / officer time question, the response answered, “Do not hold a breakdown of the amount of officer time dedicated to the bid. There were a number of staff (34 in total) who fed into the process from across the Council.”
(For transparency, the total spent with Wrexham.com was £0.00)
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