Keith Rossiter: Critics are selling Plymouth short

“I moved down to Plymouth in 2009. I am originally from the city of Manchester and I have in my time lived in Bristol, Oxford, Hereford, North Wales. Yet I have fallen in love with this city, the surrounding area and it's people. My experiences here have all been positive. There is a quality of life here that I haven't found elsewhere. I can take all the positives from everywhere I ever lived and they are here with hardly any of the negatives. The friendliness of the working class people in the city rivals that of us Northerners. The city was the gateway to the colonised world for the UK and actually has a real history and connection with the sea as opposed to the pretend one Bristol claims with it's small canal. The closeness of the rural areas to the city like Cornwall and Dartmoor and the beauty of the coast line is equal to if not better than those found in the border Marches and North Wales. The education facilities are working on some incredible tech and they are churnign out students to the highest standards. The city is modern and historic at the same time and it's culture of history and education is definitely equal to every other city in the country. It is like the whole of the UK in a microcosm.

There is also a creative element in the city that is crying out for investment, it's there bubbling away under the surface but is mostly ignored and the talent drain from this area is huge.

All of the comments I'm reading on here both the negative and the positive would all be answered by hosting large scale events like the capital of culture. For the positives, yes it does shine a spotlight on the city, it will attract tourism and investment. For all the naysayers all of those problems with ageing population, transport, corruption and infrastructure would also be solved by this. Manchester is probably the most regenerated city in Europe. All of it started not so much with the Commonwealth games but with the previous failed bids for the Olympics. The IRA bombing is normally attributed with its rise but the regeneration of the cities culture owes more to its failed bids than to the explosive clearing of a few shops in a small part of the city centre.

See with these bids you will get people jockeying for position with £ signs in their eyes just as it did in Manchester, especially when the common wealth games were confirmed, but something else happens. The realisation of the the fact the city will be under a spotlight causes the city to take a mirror to itself. All of this investment is coming in well we better put on a show and things like infrastructure, transport and yes even corruption suddenly come under the glare are finally answered for the good of the city and not the few. The next thing you know, roads are repaired, transport plans are made and those trying to filter the funds into their own back pockets are revealed and ousted. Those taxes start going on the things you want them to.

The successful completion of the events also does something very unique, it gives the city it's identity. It maybe one rediscovered, it may be a new one or a mixture of the 2. Forget this Positively Plymouth branding. That's just a tool that is needed for now. Its the discovery of that identity that will take the city forward and the realisation of the cities culture that will bring in young people create a vibrant culture.

So should Plymouth bid for capital of culture? Yes, and it should bid for everything else as well, the next common wealth games, the next world expo, get whatever city defining/uniting event you can and if you can't, make some up.”

“And negative comments are a bad thing? The whole basis of our government's opposition party is to be negative, to make the government think and to question decisions and policy.

It seems that some people, who are questioned by the commentators on this site, are labelling them as negative just to justify their argument by deriding the 'opposition'. Tantamount to bullying. And totally transparent.

Interesting, amusing but not a particularly convincing piece, Keith.”

“Well said LHplymouth.”

“Just flicked through the travel supplement in last weeks Mail on Sunday.....a few pages on cities to visit in the UK...no mention of Plymouth. Says it all.

We can all shout about Plymouth and what it has to offer when you're dining out for free....

easy to take up the offer of a visit to the incinerator site (thankfully you're not boasting about that Keith) but not a chance of visiting those blighted by it to see how they are suffering.

The Herald wants the 'people' to get behind the City of Culture bid...People Power.
Well, Herald were you behind the people and calling for 'People Power' when news of an incinerator metres from homes and taking in waste from all of SW Devon was announced? Course not - too busy with your noses in the trough getting what you could out of it.

Yes Plymouth could be great again but not while we have a biased local paper that misquotes and twists information to suit and while we have had councils that are too lazy and narrow minded to listen to what the people want. I am ashamed of what those who claim to represent us have done to the people and to this City.

We need some proper investigative journalists and business people who don't follow the nepotism of what is currently happening in the name of the people of Plymouth. Says it all when you can't even take the time to find out how to spell someone's name before sending in the report.

...and for implying that people who struggle to pay their way and make ends meet in this city are negative and ignorant for quite rightly fearing yet another waste of money (our money) you should be hauled in front of the boss. Those who say its great in this 'report' are the ones who are on a freebie and could probably pay to eat their time and time again.

As we've seen with the incinerator, keep telling people they are worthless and deserve bad because of where they live and you do kick the stuffing out of them...but that's the idea isn't it? Keep rubbing the noses of the disadvantaged in it and you won't get 'Yippee' responses.”

“Plymouth's cultural level can perhaps be summed up by Mr Rossiter's impression that it's all to do with how he stuffs his guts.”

“It's lovely for Mr.Rossiter to be invited to the Rhodes opening night, where the view is unparalleled.
It's not so great when you're down on the seafront though is it? Untidy, unpainted and unkempt
.
I resent the implication that the 'online ranters' are the negative thinkers who don't encourage any progress, rather I'd say we're the ones who care about the city.
I do my share of complaining, but I'd rather not. I get fed up of the ongoing pothole situation but until our roads are smooth, I'll keep on complaining.

I'm fed up with the airport situation but I'll keep on complaining, and Mr. Rossiter should know that Viable already have the money for the airport, and poster newplymouth must be new if he/she doesn't know that.

The people who can't live the rhodes lifestyle, the everyday Plymothian who has to live with bad roads, councils who build incinerators against the peoples' wishes, the state of the cities' West End, the disastrous road system, weak justice being handed out by magistrates leaving criminals on our streets, the list goes on, is stuck with it.
Each successive council enforce their changes on my city, whether I like it or not, but it's always for the 'greater good', 'looking to the future' 'keeping up/ahead of other cities'.
I want them to do the things that matter to the everyday folk, the ones like me who love this City and have watched it deteriorate over the years, the ones who would rather see this 'entrance fee' used to repair roads or sort the horrendous coach station out, repair our pavements or paint the seafront railings and lido etc.

Yes, City of Culture would be a great title to have and it's good to think positive but it doesn't make the negative things go away does it? You can't just gloss over it.
I love this City, it has and always will be my home, if there's money available, keep it at home because we desperately need it, then compete for whatever National Title you choose.”

“Plymouth has much to be proud about and it should be a City of Culture.

However, selling its Island off to a private person ( who had already failed with the football club ) and leasing out the jewel of Central Park to a football club owner with no track record makes it clear that Plymouth is a city that has been exploited over and over again to the detriment of its population - if that's culture , give me chavs”

“Its nowt to do with the critics; its do with the corrupt council, the masons, the dodgy police, common purpose and a whole load of other self-fish twonks who are more focused on lining their pockets and smiling in the papers - than Plymouth itself and the people that live here.

give it a few more years and hopefully some of these people will have moved on...on way or another and Plymouth can flourish like the Scarlett Carson it has the potential to be.”

“Mr Rossiter , Plymothians know enough about culture to realise that it doesnt need £50,000 to get a bit of paper saying so. Its like buying a star and getting a certificate from some shyster .
How many other cities are also putting in their few quids worth in this "competition" ?
Perhaps Plymothians are not as thick as you would like them to be .”

“As one of the 'online ranters' which the journalist here so blandly refers to, I have read carefully the responses and interesting they are not all from the people who originally made comments. I was one of them, so here I go:

The article by Keith Rossiter is a rather disjointed piece of text. Not the most well written article to 'sell' the city of Plymouth as a captial of culture. The most logical people here are Watcher11269 and Nikgee. They balance out their views with fair equilibrium.

Look in the Oxford Dictionary (my copy is 15 years old). The word 'culture' first and foremost means: 'tillage of the soil' then, 'improvement by training.' However in both instances a farmer has to ensure the land he is tilling contains the right nutrients to grow healthy produce and the teacher has to ensure that those they are trying to improve by training are receptive to the lessons being given. In both cases it is what you can nurture from what you already possess. In Plymouth - both counts alone are a challenge.

Sadly Plymouth lags behind on many fronts. We have an ageing population (I am am nearly at retirement age so don't cry me down on that one!) and a younger population that is either desperate to get out of Plymouth (as my kids were and only return for Christmas/holidays etc as they say there is nothing here of attraction or of employment) or a transient population of youth which is linked to the University. I do some voluntary work with University students and most of them find it hard to sum up Plymouth in one word. Culture is never part of that vocabulary. They politely cast their eyes over the horizon and go east.

As for food, well, I'm not sure about it being a culinary captial but it depends where you can afford to eat. There are some nice places around but it's an arm and a leg job to dine there unless you are one of the 'holiday homer/weekend residents' in Royal Williams Yard etc who pop down at the weekend to de-stress from The Smoke of London, where £50 per meal is a snip. Sadly that is my weekly food budget. I hunt around for a pub lunch for a fiver and South East Cornwall is the best place to go.

Transport: don't take me there. During all the snowy weather which preponderated over the south and east of the country (Plymouth was less affected) - many trains were cancelled. The journalist here waxes lyrical about the 3.5 journey from here to London yet I've rarely done it in that time. The only mode of transport which kept going around the majority of the UK in the snow - was the coach. London Victoria coach station never did so well! Our loss of the airport in Plymouth was a tragedy. A total faux-pas by the Council.

So before we tumble on to museums, art galleries and the like, before you go anywhere - take a trip to the British Museum in London before you even think about trying to assess the artistic form of culture. Does Plymouth have that? Well no, and visitor numbers are generally down in the Plymouth Museum. It isn't that big a place anyway.

So before we go into the greater realms of arts and science and languages and all the rest of it, why are we in this tableaux of nothingness when we should have lots to celebrate? The Blitz - which took away our architectural prizes and landed us with a conrete and glass abortion. Few other cities look so ugly on arrival. A Cambridge don who I had to work with on his arrival into Plymouth a couple of years ago was astounded at how difficult it was to walk around the city. He said: 'You cannot go anywhere from or to The Hoe in a straight line.' I'd never really thought about it before but he was spot on. Everything goes away to the left and right but never ahead. That has a negative effect on the visitor.

A valiant attempt by Keith to justify Plymouth going for this bid but not one I can personally support. Give it a few more years and then maybe but not yet.”