please empty your brain below

I was surprised to find that some of the other names on the list weren’t already cities.

How many hamlets would it take to make a city?

With the Tower of London within its boundaries, TH would have been better bidding for royal borough status.

Love to know how much of our money is being used on this ridiculous vanity project. Rather it were spent on cleaning up the fried chicken detritus on Whitechapel High Street I have to wade through each day.

I think the clue is in the name really - a hamlet is not a city...

They have not got a hope in hell of winning this competition, its another money wasting project that the Mayor of Tower hamlets is backing,(having a Mayor is the first huge waste of our Council Tax) the money would be far better spent on educating the sizeable number of Tower Hamlets residents who think that the streets of the borough are the place to throw their litter and old beds and sofa's etc, its not good enough just to clear it all up, you've got to educate these people, give them a warning if they are caught once and then fine them heavily if they do it again.

I live in Bolton. I've no idea how much "my" council is p1ssing up the wall on "our" bid, but frankly I'd much rather they were using the money to keep open the local libraries in the borough (including mine) that they are closing. Or maintaining the Adult Social Services/Care budget. Or maintaining the roads. Or maintaining any of the budget areas which have had to feel the pinch, whilst this pointless vanity exercise gets cash thrown at it.

"We" bid for city status for the Millenium, and IIRC, 10 years ago when it was the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Apparently, our council just isn't taking the hint!

Couldn't agree more, a city needs a city centre. Somthing which a borough like TH can never offer.

My vote is for Reading. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to live there, but I think it's the most worthy. There's a large centre with thriving shops and the town is a major centre of commerce and employment. Surely it ticks all the boxes?

Very very vague recollections of junior school history lessons here, but didn't city status relate to the size of church? A cathedral makes you a city?

Colchester.

Boudicca's stamping ground. Britain's oldest recorded town. Castle. University. Decades of chippy resentment at Ipswich and Chelmsford pulling rank on them as proper county towns. Time to put it right at last.

My benchmark for a city? A highways department that informs and consults the local cycle campaign group on its road 'improvement' plans. Anyone in *Margaret Cooper's dept? Feel free to pass this comment on. (*Head of Service, Transport and Highways at Tower Hamlets Council)

'A cathedral makes you a city' was true until the mid-nineteeth century. At that point the link was severed - some major places started being made cities without cathedrals (though in some cases, e.g. Birmingham, they got them later - but not in others, e.g. Hull). Meanwhile, some churches were promoted to cathedral, e.g Southwell (or indeed Southwark) without the associated place being made a city.

Nevertheless, 'a cathedral makes you a city' was still being taught in schools when I was young and, I dare say, today.

"Anyone in *Margaret Cooper's dept? Feel free to pass this comment on. (*Head of Service, Transport and Highways at Tower Hamlets Council)"

Gerry, I would not hold out to much hope in contacting "Margaret Cooper", I wrote a very long detailed letter to her over a year ago and despite speaking to her by telephone about six months ago to confirm that she had received it and being assured that I would receive a reply in the near future I am still waiting.

Hello fishislandskin, We would be interested in your letter (unless it's a demand for more car parking, but seems unlikely). We are Tower Hamlets Wheelers and I am their Campaigns Officer. [email protected]











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