Telford city status: Don't expect to get anything out of it
As the debate rages over whether Telford would benefit from gaining city status, Political Editor Daniel Wainwright has his say.
Most people have a clear picture in their mind of a city. It's a big, sprawling urban jungle, with a river providing pretty much the only wildlife, and a cathedral.
Wolverhampton is none of those things with the exception of being urban.
But 14 years ago, Her Majesty bestowed upon my home town the status of being a Millennium City.
I'd love to tell you everything changed. I'd love to say it heralded the start of a bright new chapter of gleaming buildings and economic prosperity.
Actually, it's almost exactly the same as it was in 2000, other than we have a new bus station.
We still have just the one tram line, opened a year before we became a city, and the rail station is still an embarrassing eyesore. Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard paints a picture of Telford becoming a concrete jungle with the scale and speed of housing that is proposed.
See also:
Business chiefs call for Telford to become a city
Telford council leader hits out at MP's 'secret city' claim
It is not in itself a bid to become a city. If that were to happen then other than having to change all the signs that say "town" to "city" there wouldn't be a fat lot else.
No-one carved a river through Wolverhampton. Telford already has one in the form of the River Severn so there would be nothing to worry about there.
And no-one's really in the market for building cathedrals.
Beyond that, city status is just that, a matter of status. As it happens, Telford already has plenty going for it that even cities like Wolverhampton lack (the ice rink and the International Centre to name but two).
City status does not bring tax breaks. It does not suddenly sweep away the planning rules that block a developer from coming in and building a high rise block of flats in your back garden.
Councils, whether city, district, county or borough, still have to bid for every precious little bit of funding they can get from the Government.
The name on the sign is just that.
So even if a secret plan to turn Telford into a city exists, as Mark Pritchard suggests it does, don't expect to get anything out of it.
Should Telford be developed into a city? Vote in our poll and have your say in the comment box below.
