It has been revealed that the Isle of Wight won’t be home to a new city any time soon, despite a bid for Newport to receive city status as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
A total of 8 new cities have been created in the Queen’s honour but Newport missed out on the prestigious status this time around.
Towns looking for an upgrade had to prove their royal links, heritage and why the community deserved to be recognised as a city.
The Island has missed out to the likes of Bagnor (Northern Ireland), Colchester, Doncaster, Douglas (Isle of Man), Dunfermline (Scotland), Milton Keynes, Stanley (Falkland Islands) and Wrexham (Wales).
Councillor Martin Oliver led the charge for the bid in 2021 and said it would be a great accolade if Newport were to be given city status and bring much investment into the town.
The Isle of Wight is one of a minority of English counties without a city; whereas neighbouring Hampshire has 3. Neighbouring Southampton, already a city, has been granted Lord Mayoralty status. The Mayor of the city will now be known as Lord Mayor.
Like there was ever a chance?
Comparing Hampshire’s 3 cities (Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester) is ludicrous.
Southampton and Portsmouth are both “proper” cities with large shopping centres and major transport links (road, rail and, in the case of Southampton, air) and universities. Winchester is a beautiful Cathedral city with a vibrant shopping centre, a university and on a mainline rail route.
Newport is a dirty little hole full of empty shops with poor public transport links (basically Southern Vectis) and expensive parking.
A futile exercise in trying to gild a turd and pretend it’s a lily.
The Isle of Wight will always be the poor cousin to the mainland. That’s why Newport will never be a city. No major road transport links except for the slow boats to China therefore no financial growth can ever be expected.
So spot on…surely this must of been a joke…
This is good news,because calling Newport a city is a total joke!
The entire bid was a farce from the start, newport is a depressing place now with so many shops closed.
Never going to be a city when there is not a Post Office in the town.
Don’t think this would come as a surprise to anyone living here other than the councillors which decided to apply.
Ironic that Douglas got City status, given that the Isle of Man has nearly half the population of the Isle of Wight.
Highly unlikely to ever be a successful bid. No doubt there will be a “lessons learnt” exercise by the Council – to include the recent failed government Bus improvement application – on exactly how such applications cost both in terms of the teams deployed and the application process.
But the only way to extract funding from this government is via the utterly inefficient grant application process.
Unless, of course, there were something like an Island Deal in the offing …
Thank god for that, no new city emissions zone.
Shock Horror I am gob smacked !!!!
Why on earth has Newport not got City Status ?????
Is it because it’s a vacant void ???
No post office ???
No va va voom???
Grubby run down ???
Answer’s please !!!!!
Very true. Newport isn’t even the biggest town on the island. It needs a massive regeneration to even be considered.
Good. Excellent news. Now perhaps IWC can got on with what they are supposed to be doing instead of wasting time and taxpayers money, and shelve all thoughts of this nonsensical nature for at least the next hundred years.
Why would you want to call a ghost town a city?
THANK-YOU UNIVERSE!!
How much did it cost the island tax payer to even put Newport forward for city status?
You can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig. Sorry cancel that there is not even lipstick on the pig.
You can’t polish a turd!
But they did try to roll it in glitter!
The island council want to turn this island into a concrete ghetto, all cities are toilets in my opinion…house the 2500 family’s then tell the developers to p..s off.
We don’t need anymore pollution, traffic, crime, or deadbeats..
Isle of Wight is no longer known as a County.. has been allocated as Hampshire for many years now… Newport would be the last place I would think of making a city… it is a dump… no post office, the place is always filthy.. when did any of the Royal family last visit the place ??
Even Jim Royle wouldn’t bother. No post office…my arse
The ploy was just for GREED…
How much did the bid cost?
Hahahaha, deluded council once again, and we all know they only went for it, so they could up council tax in Newport even more and give themselves a massive pay hike, they will never become “Newport and Isle of Wight City Council” Welcome to Newport City, Come inside and visit…. Nothing, well actually only Hursts is worth a visit in Newport these days.
newport city? more like sh..ity what a dump..