please empty your brain below

Nothing gives greater confidence than "The decision will made by government ministers (advised for the first time by an expert panel)"

Expect Marazion, Alcester, Oban and Stanley plus any others suggested by Bill Gates
What happens if the Queen passes away before her 70th anniversary?
"Crewe has ideas above its station"

Seen what you did there, DG. Nice turn of phrase.
Which two towns on the Isle of Man are larger than Douglas?
I can't see any royal connection with the word 'Andrew' in it being successful.
How can this be at all subjective? Is it a competition as to which town has the most civic pride? Which has the most interesting historic buildings? The highest number of marginal constituencies in the locality? The only fair solution is to let them all win
I would agree that Middlesbrough is the prime contendor in England - it woud deserve it for its railway station alone! And for future rounds, it's intriguing to speculate which Welsh towns would be considered - probably between Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil.
Reading, MK, Northampton and Warwick will be vetoed because they’re too close to Oxford.
If Northampton won, what would happen to its football team? Have any other towns with a Town team become cities?
There's no such thing as Bournemouth Town Council anymore. It became Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council a couple of years back.

A lot of Poole and Christchurch residents think that if Bournemouth became a city it would further reduce those two to mere suburbs.

dg writes: reworded, thanks.
What. No Croydon - always on the list.

Though now technically bankrupt, which doesn't help
Indeed, no Croydon. Says Wikipedia: 'Croydon also applied in 1951, but failed as it was felt not to have a sufficient identity apart from Greater London, and reports on the conduct of local government in the town were unfavourable.'
The South East bidders all have a strong case, as important and discrete places/areas, though Middlesbrough probably has the best case. Dudley to me, if just part of the West Midlands sprawl, the same problem Croydon has.

On the other hand Wales is running out of candidates. It would be dubious if Wrexham got the nod, when several far more deserving English towns miss out time after time
David: Apropos the Isle of Man, 'not even the largest two' means that Douglas (by far the largest town on the island) has applied, but the second largest (Ramsey) hasn't.

City of Medway just doesn't sound right as it is currently not even a town (but a group of towns). likewise, City of South Ayrshire for the same reason, although City of Ayr has a nice ring to it (had the town submitted its own bid).

With regard to Marazion, a much more useful boost to the town than city status would be to have its railway station on the Great Western main line reopened.
This tweet from @undertheraedar has a map of the 69 existing cities and the 39 wannabees.
Re Town football clubs being renamed. Swansea Town became Swansea City on elevation to its new status.
I vote for Guildford as it has a cathedral, a castle and a canal.
Please Your Majesty give Milton Keynes a break and give it what it should have had years ago. It’s a city in all but name.
I initially had the question on "the anniversary 'being taken away' issue but I quickly realised that if (God forbid) it did happen the award could as well go ahead as the first award from the long-awaited new one.
I’m originally from Poole and the fact the bid is just Bournemouth is so odd. The form and function is of a continuous urban area with very arbitrary boundaries; in fact since the creation of a single unitary authority you could argue there aren’t any boundaries now.
I note that Swansea football club got promoted immediately after becoming a City FC.
The campaign for Rochester to regain its city status as Medway say "The Government have made clear that city status will be granted only to an area with a local authority, which rules out a return of city status solely to historic Rochester, since it has neither a parish nor a district council of its own." which makes the Bournemouth application odd; plus Brighton & Hove only gained city status after their merger, so you'd have thought a Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole bid would be a much more compelling bet
The eight (eight!) Jubilee cities are Colchester, Milton Keynes, Doncaster, Dunfermline, Bangor, Wrexham, Stanley and Douglas.

» The English list is a bit east-heavy.
» Essex, which had no cities in 2011, now has three.
» The Scottish, Welsh and Irish choices are fair enough.
» ...and the government just couldn't resist honouring the Falklands.










TridentScan | Privacy Policy