COLCHESTER’S ancient position as a centre of the Roman occupation of Britain has finally been recognised with the bestowing of city status, tourism leaders have said.
Tourism group Destination Colchester said the Roman settlement at Camulodunum was the first place in Britain to be granted the special legal status of Colonia.
Simon Taylor, of Destination Colchester, said: “This was considered to the equivalent of a modern city, and the Normans regarded Colchester as having a similar status.
“Even now, visitors to Colchester often assume that it is a city, so it is only right for our historic town to have its ancient status restored.”
He added: “In 2012, at Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee, Destination Colchester compiled Colchester's strongest ever city status application on behalf of the council and, with our blessing, this work was carried forward to form the basis of the current successful bid.
“We are proud of our involvement and believe this apply demonstrates the value of working together on such ambitious projects.
“In addition to the formal application, we and others had written to the Government to make the case for other towns that had shown a similar commitment to city status competitions, so we are interested to see that both Milton Keynes and Wrexham were also successful.
“Another of the outcomes of the 2012 bid was the claim for Colchester as Britain's first city, later also adopted by the council.
“We were always cautious to avoid claiming that the town is Britain's first city, so it will be an extra delight to drop that caution and make the claim even louder and bolder.”
In a poll launched on the Gazette’s website, 57 per cent of 1,700 readers said they are happy with the news at the time of writing.
Canvassing the reaction on social media, many readers said the conferring of city status will prove to be a positive step.
Richard Goddard said: “This is great news for Colchester.
“It's been consistently one of the fastest growing towns in Europe for about 20 years.
“It was originally a city, so its good news that it will be made one again. Now it should finally get some extra funding as a result.”
Ann Hutchings said: “It will raise Colchester's profile and status, which should generate more business interest and tourism.
“So, yes not access overnight to a pot of money, but it should boost the local economy.”
Juliette Maxam said: “Fantastic news. It should really give the borough a boost in terms of accessing more funding and lead to more investment in our new ‘city’ centre. It certainly worked for Chelmsford.”
Colchester’s mayor Robert Davidson said: “On behalf of everyone in Colchester, I would like to thank Her Majesty for this wonderful honour in her platinum jubilee year."
He added: “I would also like to pay tribute to everyone who backed Colchester’s bid, including HM Lord Lieutenant of Essex Jennifer Tolhurst, and all those who worked so hard to make city status a reality in this extraordinary year.
“We hope this wonderful announcement will offer new opportunities for local people and provide a bright future for generations to come.”
David King, leader elect of Colchester Council, said: "This is truly great news. A defining moment in the long history of our borough that will raise our national profile and attract the kinds of inward investment that is only open to cities."
He added: “With city status comes more opportunities to boost the local economy, create even greater social opportunities, and promote our rich heritage and culture, to the benefit of all our residents.”
Jennifer Tolhurst, Lord Lieutenant of Essex, said: “I am so delighted for Colchester.
2It’s a wonderful town with many notable features: its long and ancient history, its garrison, home to 16 Air Assault Brigade, a centre for the arts with Firstsite and a vibrant, newly refurbished Mercury Theatre, as well as the internationally recognised University of Essex.
“It has wonderful historic buildings including the castle set in the beautiful Castle Park.”
Colchester was one of only three places to have submitted bids to become cities on all five occasions city status has been available.
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