Fingers crossed (From Durham Times)

Fingers crossed

1:50pm Friday 11th December 2009

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IT’S difficult to see what more could have been done to push Durham’s bid to be the first UK City of Culture.

Every celebrity has been summoned to the cause, every trick has been pulled to make the point that the city we love is the best place to focus the cultural energy of the nation in 2013.

Predicting how the panel will judge the merits of Durham compared with 20 or so other hopefuls is difficult.

The opposition includes big cities like Birmingham, Bradford and Brighton, less well defined areas like Pennine Lancashire and Swansea Bay and similar-sized communities like Norwich, Chester and Barnsley.

The key criteria to be used in selecting a winner are achieving a cultural “step-change”, lasting social regeneration and widening participation.

Durham’s bid could well deliver on the latter two but, given its strong existing cultural associations and activity, could struggle to deliver on the first.

The city and its opponents now have to wait until the new year to see if they have made a shortlist. If it has, there will be four months to hone the bid for final submission in May.

At this point, nobody could have done more to press Durham’s case. It’s fingers crossed until January.

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