The City of Milton Keynes


Photograph courtesy of Stuart Williams


Royal


announcement is realisation of a long-cherished ambition


After years of waiting, the news that Milton Keynes had been included in a list of eight new cities to mark Her Majesty T e Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was greeted with joy, tears and just a little relief across the region.


Bids in 2000, 2002 and 2012 came to nothing,


but this time it was the news Milton Keynes wanted to hear. It was celebrating along with Colchester and Doncaster in England, Dunfermline in Scotland, Bangor in Northern Ireland and Wrexham in Wales; as well as Stanley in the Falklands and Douglas in the Isle of Man. T e Platinum Jubilee civic honours competition


required applicants to show their cultural heritage and royal links as well as how their local identity and communities meant they deserved to be granted city status. Winning city status can provide a boost to local communities and open up new opportunities for the people who live there, as is the case with previous


16 ALL THINGS BUSINESS


winners Perth and Preston, where the local economies benefi ted from their improved national and global standing. Speaking on BBC T ree Counties Radio on the morning the news was


announced, the Mayor of Milton Keynes, Amanda Marlow, who was part of the bid team, said: “When I heard the news, I sat at my desk and cried happy tears. T is has been months of hard work and it’s been a dream I’ve had for such a long time. To see the place that I love fi nally get this city status that it deserves just means everything. “Now we can go forward in terms of innovation, in terms of inward


investment. It will help bring more businesses here and people are going to see what we have been seeing for years, that Milton Keynes is a fantastic place.” T e local MPs Iain Stewart and Ben Everitt shared their delight,


having both called on Milton Keynes Council to put in a bid as soon as the competition was announced.


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