Wrexham City Status bid detail emerges as Plaid Cymru brand it ‘daft meaningless label’

More detail has been released on the city status bid idea that Wrexham Council look set to explore, with a full report going before the Executive Board on Tuesday now in the public domain.

The report reveals that the bid is technically a ‘competition’ held by the Queen, “to grant the prestigious and rare civic honours of ‘City Status’… to a select number of worthy towns and cities in the United Kingdom”.

Separately UK Government have said: “As part of this government’s commitment to levelling up and increasing opportunity across the United Kingdom, local authorities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can enter the competition and make a case for why its area deserves to be granted one of these honours.

“For the first time, the city status competition will also be open to applications from the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.”

To discover if Wrexham is ‘worthy’ of the status a maximum of eight sides of A4 can be submitted to show how the town meets the proposal against the criteria of:

• Distinct identity
• Civic pride
• Cultural infrastructure, interesting heritage, history and traditions
• Vibrant and welcoming community
• Record of innovation
• Sound governance and administration
• Associations with Royalty
• Other “particularly distinctive features, age, residents or communities who have made widely recognised significant contributions to society and cultural infrastructure”.

Overnight the reaction to Wrexham.com social media posts announcing the probable bid provoked a mainly negative response to the idea on Twitter and Facebook, however on our Instagram things appeared more split on a straight poll with 41% backing the idea and 59% opposed.

Such a range of views is anticipated by the council, with a “variety of views that stakeholders express about the implications of gaining City Status, some based on the benefits that this may bring and some based on people’s views about the perceptions associated with a ‘town’ and with a ‘city’” expected.

The council explain: “Key pieces of work that will be required include: working with economic specialists to identify the benefits and any disadvantages associated with city status; engaging with stakeholders about these benefits to gain their views; identifying a key set of stakeholders who would work with the Council on advocating the bid.”

If the report gets the expected green light on Tuesday “a bid writing working group and work programme will need to be established to confirm key methods and dates of consultation and communication and final decision making prior to submission of the application”

The first local political reaction emerged last night as Plaid Cymru councillors voiced their opposition to the city status bid.

Cllr Carrie Harper said: “This is the third time this council’s leadership has gone for city status – the previous winners were Newport and St Asaph. I would challenge the council to list the added benefits that city status brought to those two towns in the past decade.

“The bid will cost Wrexham citizens tens of thousands of pounds – regardless of whether it’s successful. I think the people of Wrexham would rather our civic leaders concentrated on ensuring our children’s services are working properly, our schools are thriving, our town centre is full and the potholes are fixed before another reckless city status adventure.

“This council is planning to wreck our countryside through its Local Development Plan – is this what city status means?”

“The people of Wrexham have consistently rejected this daft idea so let’s focus on delivering great services for Wrexham rather than putting meaningless labels on our town.”

“Did we need city status to pull in millionaire backers for our football club? Did we need to be a city to have a world heritage site? What exactly are the benefits of having this empty and costly status?”

“Wrexham has a great heritage as a market town, it’s got a bright future as the capital of north Wales. But not with this council leadership – the people have a chance to elect a new council leadership in 10 months’ time and that means electing people who will focus on what Wrexham really needs.”

Minister of State for the Constitution & Devolution, Chloe Smith, said of the civic competition, “The Civic Honours competition is an opportunity to promote your hometown and win an honour for it that will last for all time.

“I encourage entries from local authorities in every part of the UK, from vibrant towns and cities with distinct identities, history, and sense of community.

“The brilliance of the United Kingdom is rooted in diverse and unique communities brought together by a shared sense of civic pride, so I have no doubt the competition will be fierce – but success will be a historic moment of celebration for the winners, which will take its place within Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.”