Borough council bids for UK Town of Culture honour

Newcastle‑under‑Lyme has announced its intention to bid to be a UK Town of Culture.

The area had "a culture of art and innovation which has been developed over centuries", the borough council said.

Thousands of towns, which can start applying, have a chance to become the UK's first Town of Culture as part of a competition, with the winner awarded £3m.

Longton in Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe in Cheshire are among those bidding to succeed.

Three finalists will be chosen by a panel, with two runners-up receiving £250,000 each.

The competition had been launched as part of efforts to "restore pride in communities" with applicants encouraged to showcase their "unique stories", the government has said.

The first title will be awarded for 2028 when the winning town will start a year-long programme of cultural celebrations.

Newcastle council said much of the borough's history, heritage and culture was celebrated in 2023 during the year-long celebrations of the 850th anniversary of the town's royal charter.

Newcastle-under-Lyme was awarded the overall prize at the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom contest, and the following year a statue of Queen Elizabeth II was unveiled in Queens Gardens.

Another long-term legacy was the creation of a Civic Pride Investment Fund to help bring communities closer together, the council stated.

Leader Simon Tagg said: "We already have award-winning jewels such as the Brampton Museum, Apedale Heritage Centre and the New Vic Theatre, and a culture of art and innovation which has been developed over centuries."

Isla Telford, co-founder of Urban Wilderness CIC, which puts on Longton Carnival and Pig Walk Parade, is working on a pitch for her town.

She said: "Over the last five years we've seen enormous changes to cultural activity in Longton.

"I think what's great about Longton and why it should win the Town of Culture is that all of the activity here is grassroots, it's community-led and it makes a real impact to people's lives."

Novae Baghurst is co-director of CreweCreates, an arts-based community interest company leading that town's bid, with the backing of Crewe's cultural consortium.

She said: "We're really proud of Crewe and its history and it's spent, I'd say, the last decade really working on developing its cultural offer.

"We've got the communities of Crewe behind it with so many volunteers. In the last year we had over 4,000 hours of volunteers just wanting to put into community events."

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