Swindon bidding to become UK City of Culture

Swindon will be launching a bid to try and become the UK's City of Culture for 2029.

The Wiltshire town's population size, about 222,000 residents, means it is eligible to enter the competition's city, rather than town, category. It will be competing against cities including Bristol, Portsmouth and Plymouth.

Swindon Borough Council is working with Swindon Culture Collective to prepare the bid - which, if successful, would unlock £10m of government funding for arts and events.

Council leader Jim Robbins said winning the title would help re-brand the town, adding: "I'm bored of just reading those same, old negative comments about Swindon."

"There's loads that we can be proud of. There's things happening here that show the town is on the up," he added.

The UK City of Culture competition was first launched in 2009 and is run by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It asks entrants to set out how they would transform their area through culture, with previous winners including Hull, Bradford and Coventry.

Councillor Marina Strinkovsky, cabinet member for placemaking, said she was confident about the bid.

"Just the exuberant talent and the absolute outpouring of creativity, can do and start up attitude in the culture and heritage sector has inspired me.

"I genuinely believe the sector in Swindon is capable of anything, just because of what I've seen them do.

"So much of Swindon happened because of Swindonians," she added.

Kate Wyatt, the council's head of culture, art and special events, said Swindon's cultural scene was well connected to other sectors, such as education.

"Every corner I turn I find a new thing I didn't know about. For example, the first ever lending library was in Swindon," she said.

The deadline for entrants to submit their expression of interest forms is 8 February and the government expects to announce its longlist in late March.

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