Tees Valley City of Culture 2025 bid dropped

The region already has an "amazing cultural sector", council chiefs say

Efforts to make the Tees Valley the UK City of Culture in 2025, first mooted in 2015, have been dropped in favour of "building its own cultural sector".

Bids opened for cities and regions to vie for the prize after Coventry's tenure began earlier this month.

Despite an initial push, the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) said it would not be pursuing the status.

Instead it intends to work on plans to ensure the hospitality and cultural sector is "still around after Covid".

A push to make the region a City of Culture began in 2015.

Two years later, the TVCA board - made up of Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland and Darlington council chiefs - backed a report which recommended preparations were made for a bid.

However, in January 2020 a scrutiny committee heard there had been a "lot of apprehension" about whether a formal bid would be worth the effort, and alternative plans were being drawn up.

'Fancy title'

Then, when the pandemic hit, a task force was launched to help steer a recovery programme for the cultural and visitor sectors, and a £16.5m recovery package was signed off.

Councillor Shane Moore, leader of Hartlepool Council, and the TVCA cabinet member for culture and tourism, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the City of Culture bid would have cost an estimated £20m to £25m.

"It was decided it would be better to build our own cultural sector within the Tees Valley without having to go through any type of formal bid," he said.

"The world changed and we needed to make sure we were responsive enough to make sure our hospitality and cultural sector was still around after Covid. 

"We don't need someone to give us a pat on the head and give us a fancy title - we know we're a fantastic region and we know we have an amazing cultural sector anyway. 

"We're just going to crack on and strengthen that."