“"Last year the council's cabinet approved plans to spend ..... £500,000 .... on a bid to host European arts festival Manifesta in Cornwall in 2012." £300,000 on a pointless feasibility study. £40,000 or more on a bid when everybody knows a County is not a City. Meanwhile the leader of the Council brazenly admits that no one ever expected the £60 m cost of the new council could be re- couped, despite manifesto assurances to the contrary! Who is on this "Cabinet" (sic) and have they totally lost their marbles?”

“Cornwall is many things to many people. County, Duchy, Nation, Country.... but please, it isn't a city.

I hope the European region of culture bid is successful.”

“Excellent news!

At one time I thought that a City of Culture was a good concept. Then I saw places like Liverpool and Glasgow being on the list to be awarded the title. When the penny dropped I realised that the label meant something totally different to how it sounded, just as the euphonious term coined by politicians ¿community¿ in reality means low-grade and cheap, as in Community Hospital, Community School or Community Service (the punishment for prisoners who do not actually go to gaol).

The pejorative use of ¿community¿ was inevitably ridiculed by the cynics so the bog-standard (but pretentious) local comprehensive where I once worked was delighted for a short time to become a Community School. That did not last five minutes before the management (who had abolished Latin) had it redesignated as a Language College with Japanese on the curriculum ¿ their latest funding fad!

City of Culture is a flag that tells outsiders that the place is an area of low economic output, low educational achievement and poor quality housing with numerous other social problems such as high teenage pregnancy, poor health, low life expectancy and high levels of crime. In this respect only the last term does not really describe Cornwall but I¿m sure you get the picture, as everyone else would have done if we had been cursed with this label.

Heaven help Norwich ¿ they don¿t even have Silver Bands and Male Choirs to proclaim their poverty!”

“Thank goodness this has failed! We should not sell the culture of our nation for a few pence from the tourists.”

“Truro?

"City Of Culture"?”

“It's a shame, but not being a city I'm not entirely surprised.

I hold out more hope for the Region of Culture contest, which would bring a lot of benefits to Cornwall. Cornwall has become a bit of a cultural hotspot over the past decade as the guidebooks like to point out, and it would be great for the county to showcase it.

Hosting that Manifesta arts festival would also be a huge boost for Cornwall, proving that we can hold our own when it comes to hosting international events, would give us a positive image abroad and prove that the world doesn't revolve around big cities.”

“Hooray !”

“Sadly, I have to agree that the failure of the bid is the best thing.
The Council's Children's Services are failing and have to be supported by government, care for the elderly and disabled is an underfunded scandal, the waste and landfill plans are in crisis, our housing stock is poorly managed - Cornwall Council needs to focus on its core services and get its house in order before making ambitious bids that will impose more work on officers.”

“The "city of culture" title was a notional one - hence the belt and braces approach by applying to become a region of culture aswell.

Mike from Penryn is spot on. This will bring a lot of money and jobs into the county.

If CC is unsuccessful in its second bid, they will look to fund it from EU convergence funding anyway”

“I completely agree with the above comments, the Council has destroyed anything and everything of value and brought the County to its knees, and also, and this is the best point, Cornwall is not a City. Hope this saves us some money.”