Perth City Status

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. Bertrand Russel

Ministers snub drive for Perth city status...............

THE SCOTTISH Executive is not backing Perth’s bid for official city status.

Message received at Business Perthshire

During the last round of bids for city status in 2002, I was bemused by the lack action and lazy answers coming from Perth and Kinross Council. I emailed the council asking why Perth was not bidding. 'We are already a city' was the response, and in turn the reason given to the media. We all know that legally, and outwith the Perthshire mindset that this is not the case. The council stated at the time that there was no knowledge of additional funding to the winners of these bids. This is true, however, is it not naive of the council not to realise the repercussions of not bidding? They did not consider any of the following:

1. The boost in PR and generation of interest in Perth would have been extremely positive, as it was for Inverness in 2000.

2. In not bidding, Perth has handed competitive advantages to 2 other Scottish towns (Stirling and Inverness).

3. The 'Visit Scotland' website and television commercials run a substantial promotion on Scottish city breaks, as do other promotional outlets for Scotland. Guess what? Perth is not involved.

4. Independent travel guides could be reviewing Perth as one of Scotlands cities rather than receive minor mention among regional centres.

I was born and bred in Perth, but I have lived and worked in Glasgow for several years now. It is frustrating to watch from the outside the ascension of other Scottish cities and towns in economic and cultural fortunes, while Perth is quite happy to throw away good chances when they come along. Perth is a beautiful city with a lot of good places to eat, drink and visit. It is a shame that an immense chance such as city status has been blown, as it would have undoubtedly helped Perth to achieve its huge potential. I wish the best of luck to the 'Setting up the City' bid, however I fear that it may be too late.

Perth Expat, Glasgow

The Courier reports that the Scottish Executive is not backing Perth's bid for official city status.

No surprises there!

'Finance minister Tom McCabe has confirmed that the Executive will take no stance on the issue until the UK government announces any new city status competitions and would not speculate on the merit of bids in advance of that.' He added that the Cities Growth Fund - which it is hoped could be tapped into by Perth if it achieves legal status - has been allocated until 2008 and was non-committal about whether Scotland even needs a seventh city.

Wake up Perthshire!!

Cities are modern forward thinking places where new businesses are encouraged and new skills are welcomed. They are also welcoming places for new people from outside the area - So Perth has major problem to overcome.

Money from the Cities Growth Fund should go where it will be put to proper use and not to a bigoted corrupt area that is no welcoming place or one that is not wanting to move forward.

Murdo Fraser Tory MSP states - “We must continue to show the Scottish Executive that everyone in Perth believes and wants the city to gain legal city status."

Actually Mr Fraser it seems to be the same small group of people that bang on about gaining city status when from the majority there is overwhelming apathy. Quite frankly the majority of Perthshire people don't seem to give a toss if Perth gains city status or not.

Mr Fraser also goes on to say: "We cannot allow Perth to become an adjunct to a city region based around Stirling or Dundee. Unfortunately, this could be the fate of Perth if we do not get legal city status.”

We believe Perthshire's fate is already sealed!

If you believe that Perth deserves city status, then we suggest you to write to us with reasons why it should be granted.

Perth Railway Station has been described by Perth MSP Roseanna Cunningham as “tatty” and “rundown.” She also states “Perth station is long overdue an overhaul. It has a tatty and rundown feel that ill-serves the people of Perthshire and our visitors, let alone the station staff who have to work there." Her criticism is backed by Murdo Fraser.

I don't know you guys, have you looked around the rest of Perth? First ScotRail have done a pretty good job at maintaining the station in keeping with the rest of the town - TATTY and RUNDOWN!!