Merthyr Tydfil shelves £45,000 bid to become a city
Councillors in Merthyr Tydfil have decided not to proceed with an application for city status following a vote tonight.
They voted by 21-10 to end plans to apply, after receiving the results of a questionnaire which was conducted on the Council website over a three week period.
1,781 people contributed to the questionnaire, with 42.56% in favor of proceeding to apply for city status and 57.44% against continuing the plans.
Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Transformation and Commercialization, Councillor Geraint Thomas said he was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
Successful applicants would have been awarded city status as part of next year’s Queen’s Platinum Celebrations.
The predicted total cost to proceed to full application stage would have been around £45,000 which includes professional fees, PR and a social media campaign.
Supporters of the bid included the Lord Lieutenant of Mid Glamorgan Peter Vaughan and High Sheriff of Mid Glamorgan Jeff Edwards who are Merthyr Tydfil residents as well as Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney MP Gerald Jones, Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris and Newport West MP Ruth Jones.
The vote leaves Wrexham as the only town in Wales still vying to become a city. Since 1889 there has been no requirement for a city to have a cathedral.
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Well, while I agree there are more important issues to be dealt with in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, the very fact that they started this process just to stop it when it seemed a little unpopular is precisely the reason why people can’t take any leadership of that local authority seriously. I’m generally supportive of the Welsh Government, but they really should have reduced the number of local authorities from 22. They should have started with the principal that local authorities need to be viable and fundamentally democratic. Unfortunately, a number of local authorities in Wales don’t fall into either… Read more »
Merthyr have got to stop being little Englanders and be proud to be welsh we don’t want English city’s in wales 🏴 just welsh town’s its the valleys people that’s letting wales 🏴 down by still voting for English party’s in wales 🏴 start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴
Common sense prevails. It’s barely big enough to be a town nowadays let alone a city.