Thursday 13th April, 2023
Cabinet at Colchester City Council met on Wednesday evening to consider the progress made since the town was granted city status. The debate centred on the benefits of city status for residents in Colchester.
Conservative Cllr Dennis Willetts, Chair of the Scrutiny Panel, asked what the tangible differences of achieving city status were for the town’s residents:
“The Panel thought there would be some tangible difference when we achieved city status. We would be able to identify or measure the difference that the status would make. It would enable us to do things we couldn’t do – bigger and better. This is the perception. I don’t think Cabinet’s understanding is the same.”
Cllr Willetts went on to say that the City of Celebration festival was being supported, but there were no extra resources or additional powers:
“So what’s the difference? What are we doing now that we’re a city that we couldn’t do before? What are the benefits for the community? All we’ve heard is Town Deal and levelling up – everything we were going to do before city status came along.
City Status is a branding issue rather than significant differences about how we will work in the future. It should be presented as a branding issue of all the things that will make Colchester great in the future.
The City of Celebration must be for all the city. The improvement in skills is one of the most important things that need to change. We need more skills. There is a skills deficiency in Colchester.
What makes us exciting for some employers is that we are a low wage economy. We want to transform to become a high wage economy. We need a drive to push up skills levels.”
Cllr Willetts also stressed the importance of effective project management as a city:
“As a city, we would expect all our projects to be delivered in a more effective manner. We need better and quicker project management.”
Labour Cllr Adam Fox, Deputy Leader of the Council, said:
“City status is an intangible benefit. But it’s a benefit. I’ve already seen people setting their sights higher. Our work with our partners such as the University makes it easier to sell Colchester internationally.
There is a sense of energy in groups that wasn’t there previously. There is work to be done, but our partners want to be involved.
Colchester is one of the driving economies in the County. We need to be part of the devolution conversation. We want to improve skills and wage levels for our residents.”
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