We’ve been to Hull and back

We gave it our best shot

After a roller-coaster week I am now heading back to Swansea with a tired and slightly dejected crew after narrowly missing out again on the UK City of Culture title.

On Wednesday the pitch team travelled up to Hull in a minibus to make the case for Swansea.  Joining me on the team were:

Richard, a young dancer

Seren, a member of West Glamorgan Youth theatre

Councillor Rob Stewart, Leader

Tracey McNulty, Head of Cultural Services

Kevin Allen, film director.

The 20-minute pitch to the panel was followed by 70 minutes of interrogation of our bid, our commitment and our ability to deliver it.  The team, and in particular our young culture champions, Richard and Seren, did an amazing job in putting the case forward and we are all hugely indebted to them.  Our presentation script is attached here.

To come close a second time is agonising but nothing will change the fact that we are a City of Culture and this setback will not change our commitment to regenerate this city through culture one bit.  I said that five minutes after the announcement in Derry four years ago and I am saying it again now.  There is a cultural strategy to deliver and we will continue apace.

Congratulations to Coventry on winning the title.  All I can say is that their bid must have been excellent if it beat ours.

For now I would like to place on the record my thanks to all who have contributed to this endeavour.  We had massive support from our staff and from all the members of Council.  A particular thanks to Tracey McNulty who has invested so much in this.  Without the efforts of Tracey and her team we would not have got into the final shortlist which is in itself an achievement to be proud of.  Every cloud has a silver lining and meeting our inspirational young culture champions was a reward in itself.

Onwards and upwards.

Swansea is Culture.

Awards

We mentioned in our final pitch to the City of Culture judges that we’d won 67 awards over the past five years. Another one we’ve picked up is the Armed Forces Covenant Silver Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. We’re very proud of it because it demonstrates our continuing support for the British Armed Forces and their families, whether they are reservists working for us, serving members or veterans.

Swansea is Caring

Meanwhile, back in Swansea our teams are gearing up for Christmas, supporting a range of community initiatives for those who are alone, homeless or in need this time of year.

There’s the Mr X Appeal, of course, which we are heavily involved in every year. And last Christmas JR Events’ homeless Christmas dinner at the Brangwyn was so massively-successful that they’re doing it again this time.

This year the Benefits Section is running a Christmas Hamper raffle to support the Swansea-based dementia charity Forget Me Not. You can buy tickets or contribute to the hamper prizes by visiting room 1.2.4 in the Civic up until December 14 when the draw is made.

And the Election Team’s Alison O’Hara is appealing for donations to go to Room 216 in the Guildhall for a new campaign being run by students at UWTSD called Feed a Child. It’s dedicated to providing meals to children in need during the school holidays. You can find out more here