Sandown is entering into the Government’s UK Town of Culture competition – with a chance of winning £3.5million.
Sandown Town Council (STC) unanimously voted to approve the submission of an Expression of Interest for the contest, at its meeting on Monday (26th January).
They will enter the small town category. Newport and Ryde have already said they will be entering the medium town category.
STC will act as the accountable body for the bid, providing the necessary local authority partnership required by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The winning town will receive £3.5million to deliver a cultural programme in 2028 and longlisted places will be given £60,000 to develop a full bid, according to Whitehall.
3 key criteria will be used to judge the competition: a town’s unique story, how it will design a cultural programme for all and then deliver it successfully.
Sandown North councillor Tracy Mikich approached STC, expressing enthusiasm to explore a Sandown bid, Mayor Alex Lightfoot told the Broadway Centre meeting. He said:
“It’s not where’s got the most established cultural offering, it’s about where the most change can be affected.”
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Cllr Debbie Andre asked:
“Why wouldn’t we want to go for this” and described the contest as a “fantastic opportunity”.
Councillor Ian Boyd said:
“This is a journey towards 2028. The scheme is looking for a place that wants that journey to be all about development and isn’t just heading to a big party.
“Reaching a plateau – a better state for the town – and then moving on from there through that process of cultural investment.”
Councillor Joan Solomon said:
“Our argument has got to be the potential and how badly we need it. Very often when you go for something, if you don’t get it the paperwork you prepared and the arguments you’ve made attract attention and you go off in another direction.”
Councillor Mikich told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) after the meeting:
“From the eccentric hat parades of our Regatta to the bizarre mystery of the Sandown Clown, now immortalised in a life-sized statue gifted to the town by the Xanadu Collective, Sandown is a town of resilience, camaraderie, and imagination.
“Perhaps most poignantly, it was here that Charles Darwin began On the Origin of Species, writing from a hotel that now stands derelict.
“Now, there’s a story that needs a new chapter: not one of extinction, but of evolution.”
Jings is it 1st April already?
You stole my line,Yammy.
Culture? biggest dump that needs to flattened utter shit hole an embarrassment..
Town of culture, more like town of derelict Hotels
and the town that charges 50p to use toilets, not
to mention the Town that let’s vehicles park inside a
pedestrianised zone on the pavement evading parking
charges opposite Sandown Pier.
Lol
“Our argument has got to be the potential and how badly we need it.” And I’m sorry but boy do they need it!
They will have to spend more than 3.5 mil to get it up to scratch!
OED definition of Culture “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.”
nothing about it being good or worthy…
so yeah,.. Sandown as ‘town of Culture’.. just as it is,.. sort of fits really.
& very fitting with the future ‘culture’ of the UK as a whole, if Reform get in to power & fagage gets to do all he wants…
Why would you show a top down picture of a derelict hotel, as the leader for this story? surprisingly there is a lot of good stuff going on but its far easier to take the option and show the negative, weak reporting. what about the green team work, the refurbishment along the high street, the regatta…. far to easy for the nay Sayers to focus on one thing. The hotels are an issue but maybe try to set the tone based on something else rather than the easy visual option
Realism is difficult isn’t it. Sandown has absolutely nothing to offer. It’s an embarrassment to the island and to seaside towns around the country.
Possibly because when visitors arrive in the town their main first impression is burnt out hotels that have been that way for years now, homeless begging on the high street along with a lot of closed and boarded up shops.
On that basis the burnt out hotel is far more representative than a couple of once per year events.
I would love it if we could win the grant and it did make a difference but our only selling point is the slogan “Not quite as bad as Ryde and Newport (probably)”.
Waste of taxpayers money.
How unrealistic are these people? On what planet could sandown win anything, other than manliest seaside town in Britain?
I’m pushing 66 and do not believe in my lifetime, Sandown will return to its former greatness. Not while you have merssers Moorman and Spiker holding onto demolished and rundown buildings, with no intention to develope. Not while burnt out or run down hotels are owned by multiple owners who do not live here. I find it scandalous, that even the small things are just left to rack and ruin. And who gave the green light to the plaques on the sea wall near Sandown Pier?
I want to see ‘Sandown Great Again’. I’m offering my services, free of charge to help in any way. I think I’ll start bt getting rid of the sand and weeds that cover the slabs between the road and sea, opposite Brown’s golf course. Embarrassing. Improve the little things and the bigger this may follow. Sandown needs an army of helpers. I for one will help.