City of culture ? : Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:30 pm  

What a joke, the council cannot help deliver a re- furbed, stadium let alone an all singing type stadium with academies & partnerships
Of Wakey college & others. They actively talk the talk but they never deliver anything, they will do the same with city of culture bid, they are so inept, I have looked at what they propose, trouble is they have a poor planning & building control, in fairness to staff controlled by political decisions of cllrs.
So they talk the talk but NEVER walk the walk, ie, deliver.
However, to be fair they delivered the hepworth which takes subsidies of 4million a throw !
Bradford will get the city of culture, they have a PC issues, we are not a city we are a district, anything we get or do as a council has to be diluted to share with 5 towns !
This council does not recognize city status, there are very, very few wakey people cllrs.
Rant over, sad thing is it's all true !

Re: City of culture ? : Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:56 pm  

Thanks for that Maybe they will fund a half back

Re: City of culture ? : Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:59 pm  

We are a city not one of the biggest but one regardless.

Re: City of culture ? : Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:25 pm  

Yes I saw John Minnards had recently retweeted the submission from Wakefield MDC on behalf of "The City" . My comment at that time was, how could it be for "The City" when it included areas from non-city outlying areas such as Castleford. As Trin Trin say's it's a Metropolitan District Application.so, as such, not valid.

Re: City of culture ? : Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:52 pm  

You've misread the publicity, Trin. They've actually applied to become the City of Vultures

Re: City of culture ? : Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:02 pm  

Wollo-Wollo-Wollo-Wayoo wrote:

Yes I saw John Minnards had recently retweeted the submission from Wakefield MDC on behalf of "The City" . My comment at that time was, how could it be for "The City" when it included areas from non-city outlying areas such as Castleford. As Trin Trin say's it's a Metropolitan District Application.so, as such, not valid.

The City of Wakefield is a city in the same way that Bradford is a city. They both have the same Metropolitan District status. Where Wakefield includes Cas, Ponty, Hemsworth et al. Bradford includes Keighley, Ilkley, Cleckheaton and so on.
I think Wakefield on the basis of the Hepworth, Sculpture Park etc would be classed as more "cultural", but Bradford would probably win because it is larger and more (in)famous.
Have you not enjoyed the cultural delights of Darnley???

Re: City of culture ? : Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:44 am  

Wakefield is the 15th largest city in the UK, bigger than Cardif, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and even Belfast, so not a small fish.
Plenty of cultural sites and heritage to the merrie city of Wakefield

[Pumpetypump]

Re: City of culture ? : Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:53 am  

Redscat wrote:

I think Wakefield on the basis of the Hepworth, Sculpture Park etc would be classed as more "cultural", but Bradford would probably win because it is larger and more (in)famous.
Have you not enjoyed the cultural delights of Darnley???

I wish Wakey well in it's bid. I suppose our Bradford equivalents of yours would be the beautiful Cartwright Hall in Lister Park, home of David Hockney paintings, and perhaps the National Media Museum. If we are talking outlying towns then the Bronte Parsonage etc.

Re: City of culture ? : Wed Jul 21, 2021 8:06 am  

financialtimes wrote:

Wakefield is the 15th largest city in the UK, bigger than Cardif, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and even Belfast, so not a small fish.
Plenty of cultural sites and heritage to the merrie city of Wakefield

But this application is on behalf of the MDC not The CIty of Wakefield. It's a sham.

Re: City of culture ? : Wed Jul 21, 2021 8:21 am  

financialtimes wrote:

Wakefield is the 15th largest city in the UK, bigger than Cardif, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and even Belfast, so not a small fish.
Plenty of cultural sites and heritage to the merrie city of Wakefield

That's very creative

To be honest I'm no expert but I know there is a big difference between Wakefield the city and WMDC.

WMDC is huge and I believe by landmass the biggest in England, but the historical City of Wakefield is nowhere near as large as any of those you mention and I mean not even close. It all depends on how you define the city limits I suppose.

Wakefield as defined by its postcodes (WF1-WF4), the historic city has a population of 99,251, which to be fair is on the up. WMDC a District Council has a population of 322,300. The choice of which one you go for is up to you. Let's put it this way though, nobody in Pontefract ever says they come from Wakefield.

Nottingham has a population of 321,500, all of whom reside within Nottingham City Council (a Unitary authority). Its city centre is four times the size of Wakefield.

The Merrie city is indeed a huge oddity, it should be way more than it is but somehow lost its way post WW2. Never as big as Leeds post industrialisation but still the admin capital of the West Riding, it really should have kicked on but never did, This is made even stranger by the fact that in terms of transport links it's brilliantly placed.

The dependence on mining didn't help but it can't be the only reason.

All the same, regardless of which ruler you use Wakefield and surrounding towns do have a fair amount of culture, certainly as much as Hull!