Leading Wrexham councillor says city status makes it ‘official capital of north Wales’
A leading Wrexham councillor has declared that his city’s brand new status makes it “officially” the “Capital City of North Wales”.
Cllr Phillip Wynn, who was the cabinet member for education before the election, made the claim despite there being two other cities in the north of Wales of an older vintage.
Bangor is the oldest city in Wales and has held the status since the 6th century. St Asaph was declared a city in 2012 during the Queen’s Golden jubilee.
Wrexham meanwhile became Wales’ seventh city as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, announced this morning.
But Cllr Phillip Wynn took to social media to say: “We can officially call ourselves Capital City of North Wales. A big thank-you to our Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her government for recognising our uniqueness.
“It is up to us to make Wrexham a place we can truly be proud to say is our home. Dare we dream about Wrexham 2025 City of Culture.”
His claim did not impress some of his followers, who pointed out that other cities were available.
North Wales Tourism CEO Jim Jones suggested that “I think you should have a play off with Bangor for that title”.
Former Ynys Môn MP Albert Owen meanwhile suggested that while Wrexham was “the largest” but “Bangor is the senior city of north Wales”. He suggested that they play a football match for the title in neutral St Asaph.
Sports Reporter Thomas Wynne Lewis was slightly less diplomatic, reacting: “I’m not even sure where to begin with this…”
Wrexham’s bid for city status was its fourth after missing out on three previous occasions. Wrexham Council’s ruling administration approved the entry to a competition for UK towns to upgrade their status in December of last year.
The move wasn’t universally popular however with 61 per cent of respondents to a consultation saying they did not feel that Wrexham needed to be a city at all.
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North East Wales…
We’ve already got a capital city of NE Wales – Cardiff. This is just some counsellor’s marketing spin. Everyone would be best advised to ignore him.
Our free Wales will decide what is and what is not a city…… Meanwhile if Kidwelly wants to call itself a city please feel free…. No cost, no competition…. no London interference and no sycophantic nonsense.
As a citizen of the oldest city in Cymru, it is comic to see these new towns get above their station with these citifications from Engerland, and getting carried away with notions of official capital of North Wales when even Bangorians accept that the only official capital of the North of Wales is Caernarfon, unless of course, when william ap Carlo assumes the stolen princedom his investiture take place on the car park of the Eagles Meadow car park ?
Nah we will have it at the Long Pull…… with food laid on by KFC.
Being given the status of a city by a corrupt regime run by descendants of the robber-barons, butchers and oppressors that crushed Cymru under its boot is meaningless, worthless a mere gaudy bauble that the counsellors of WCBC can dangle in front of each other and use to make political CV.V’s look more interesting than they are. When Cymru is free the concepts of cities will be meaningless as we look to move away from the fripperies and absurdities of the Westminster regime and instead focus on the prosperity of the varied peoples in Cymru, the land, the water the… Read more »
Stop dividing the country
You’ll be hard put to it to find many in the town who think “Great news! We’re a city!” Wrexham has no more of a city feel about it than any other post-industrial town. It’s the people that make the town what it is, and they’re a good bunch on the whole.
Ah the kneelers love the new shiny thing they’ve been given eh?
Wrexham is great. It’s people are great. But the felchers of the Royal posterior seem to be getting carried away with themselves because of an empty gesture
I propise Machynlleth