No city status

Plaid Cymru councillors have challenged council leaders over their plans to spend tens of thousands bidding for city status - for the third time.

This is the third time this council's leadership has gone for city status - the previous winners were Newport and St Asaph. I would challenge the council to list the added benefits that city status brought to those two towns in the past decade.

The bid will cost Wrexham citizens tens of thousands of pounds - regardless of whether it's successful. I think the people of Wrexham would rather our civic leaders concentrated on ensuring our children's services are working properly, our schools are thriving, our town centre is full and the potholes are fixed before another reckless city status adventure. This council is planning to wreck our countryside through its Local Development Plan - is this what city status means?

The people of Wrexham have consistently rejected this daft idea so let's focus on delivering great services for Wrexham rather than putting meaningless labels on our town.

Did we need city status to pull in millionaire backers for our football club? Did we need to be a city to have a world heritage site? What exactly are the benefits of having this empty and costly status?

Wrexham has a great heritage as a market town, it's got a bright future as the capital of north Wales. Reject City status.

We, the undersigned, are proud of our town and believe it can thrive without the false label of 'city' being imposed on it. It will cost the council tens of thousands of pounds to mount a bid. For whose benefit? We reject city status and back our town as the capital of north Wales.

Rydym ni, yr isod, yn falch o'n tre ac yn credu y gallwn ffynu heb ei alw'n 'ddinas'. Bydd y cais am statws dinesig yn costio degau o filoedd o bunnoedd. Er budd pwy? Gwrthodwn y term 'dinas' tra'n cefnogi'n tre i fod yn ganolfan i'r Gogledd gyfan.

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Barbara Jones signed 2021-12-02 18:10:12 +0000

Definitly NO City Status we are a market town and proud to be so.
Francis Brady signed 2021-12-02 17:13:53 +0000

Daft idea. City status. NO
Marek Maciah signed 2021-12-02 15:36:44 +0000
Emlyn Roberts signed 2021-12-02 15:22:20 +0000

A complete waste of time and money. City status will not fill our empty shops and car parks…think again!!!
Fiona Evans signed 2021-12-02 14:05:52 +0000
Karen Troman signed 2021-12-02 13:25:17 +0000
Derek Foster signed 2021-12-01 16:30:03 +0000
John George signed 2021-12-01 12:08:26 +0000

Applying for city status is an extremely important decision and should not be left to the executive board to decide alone, this is a highly undemocratic course of action being proposed, although technically correct by council procedures this course of action shows a complete disregard for the electorate and demonstrates how out of touch with public opinion the council are.

Ideally this decision should have been decided by a referendum however insufficient time is now available due to the inept management of the city status bid by Wrexham council. After watching the shambolic extraordinary meeting on YouTube which confirmed no economic benefit would be generated by city status I suspect this is a vanity project of a select few within the council who are demonstrating how out of touch with the real world they are and also showing a lack of private sector business management and budget control expertise. How much will city status cost? How will it be paid for? What services will be cut or taxes raised to fund the extra spend required? I am happy to be proven wrong but so far Wrexham Council have not shared a single piece of evidence to support the benefit of city status. Given my personal life experiences as a business change manager with International experience of living and working in the USA, Australia and Europe I can only see the cost of living increasing with a successful city status bid. How much will council tax increase in years 1 to 5? Why are Wrexham council not sharing information with residents?

As time is now tight I would demand the elected council councillors have a say in leu of a referendum to at least convey the will of those who elected them. Shameful behavior by Wrexham Council!
Chris Hopkins signed 2021-12-01 12:03:22 +0000
andrew wood signed 2021-11-30 15:44:17 +0000

its a total waste and usless to the common people around who struggle as it is
M. M. Hughes signed 2021-11-30 14:31:05 +0000

I worked for WCBC prior to retirement. It was no secret at the time that policy “seemed” to be Officer led rather than Member led as it ought to be since the Members were elected to represent US, local people. What infuriated me more was those pushing the hardest for City Status, from CE down – for the most part – did not actually live in Wrexham. The tended to prefer to commute from Flintshire or Cheshire or even further afield, yet their voice seemed to be so much louder than that of local people. So little did the know about Wrexham, at least one person confided it was a “wild goose chase, because there isn’t a Cathedral in Wrexham, and you need to have a Cathedral to enjoy City Status”. In hindsight, I wish I had kept my big mouth shut because I corrected my colleague and told him that yes, we actually DO have a Cathedral in Wrexham, St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. I explained I knew this because my parents were married there. That information subsequently found its way to the CE at the time and has been there , unfortunately, in support of every bid ever since. The people who live here, for the most part, DO NOT want City Status, for reasons too numerous to mention. It is a Vanity Project for the local ‘Power Elite’ who want the history books to record their names as the prime initiators of any move towards City Status.
George Bielawski signed 2021-11-29 10:09:33 +0000

This bid would be a waste of money
@patriciakidd123 tweeted link to this page. 2021-11-27 10:47:15 +0000
Sign the petition: No city status for Wrecsam https://www.wrexhamplaid.cymru/nocitystatus?recruiter_id=27086
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Patricia Kidd signed 2021-11-27 10:45:23 +0000

A waste of money
Carol Riley signed 2021-11-26 15:17:07 +0000
Emma Burton signed 2021-11-25 14:26:50 +0000
Karen & John Raleigh signed 2021-11-24 20:58:00 +0000
Mark Thompson signed 2021-11-23 14:40:26 +0000
Ray Dickson signed 2021-11-23 14:33:52 +0000

Definitely no to city status
Ron Massey signed 2021-11-22 16:00:43 +0000
Debra Garner signed 2021-11-21 09:21:57 +0000
Sharon Jarvis signed 2021-11-20 21:40:08 +0000
Chris Jones signed 2021-11-17 21:19:00 +0000
Mark Watson signed 2021-11-16 17:34:17 +0000

I watched the meeting and I’m disgusted how the people of Wrexham have been excluded from a vote about this city status, they even stopped our elected councillors voting..just the chosen can vote.. Mark pritchard needs to step down !
Charlotte Williams signed 2021-11-14 11:31:58 +0000

I have lived in wrexham all my life and do not want city status like every other resident I speak to
Susan Williams signed 2021-11-13 13:42:13 +0000

Wrexhsm is a market town end of we do not need it to become city waste of everyone’s time and MONEY applying for it listen to the people of wrexham who do not want it
Gillian Pierce signed 2021-11-13 12:18:45 +0000
Louise Lynch signed 2021-11-12 04:18:08 +0000
Ian Fidler signed 2021-11-11 12:10:20 +0000
Timothy Hughes signed 2021-11-10 23:10:11 +0000

Plaid Cymru Wrecsam Yma i chi - On your side

No city status

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