Plans for Lincolnshire 2029 City of Culture bid

Lincolnshire councils could bid for the county to take part in the 2029 City of Culture, documents have revealed.

East Lindsey District Council’s executive committee on Wednesday voted in favour or a new Cultural Framework covering the South East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership with Boston Borough and South Holland District Council.

The document aims to line up all the cultural offerings across the council areas, guide applications for investment and funding and help support environmental sustainability.

However, the Framework also revealed the ambition for the councils for the 2029 bid.

It said: “As a sub-region our partnership has agreed to come together with Lincoln and North East Lincolnshire to develop a bold, ambitious, countywide proposition which will seek to create significant longer term impact on Lincolnshire, its arts infrastructure, communities and visitors alike.

“This is a key milestone and step change in preparing our collective capacity, ecology and co-operation frameworks for a confident 2029 City of Culture Bid to see step change in our sector to flourish grow and innovate.”

East Lindsey District Council did not provide further details by the time of publication. Despite revealing the bid for the first time in its document, the authority said the City of Lincoln Council was leading on the project.

The City of Lincoln Council said: “We in early discussions with partners from across the county about plans to drive forward an ambitious vision for culture in Lincolnshire.

“One component of this is a collective ambition for city of culture, as multiple destinations are able to apply.”

A document before ELDC’s Executive Committee revealed the ambition. | Image: ELDC

Approving the cultural framework overall on Wednesday, rural economy portfolio holder Councillor Adam Grist praised the report for “waving together all the good work that’s taking place in both culture and heritage in the visitor economy” across the districts.

The City of Culture is currently held by Coventry and Bradford has been awarded the 2025 title.

The honour is given to a select city every four years and results in the winner hosting a number of cultural festivities and culture-led evens for a year.

According to the government’s website, the title does not come with automatic funding, however, Coventry was reported to have received more than £15.5m to support its year of programmes and attracted £100m of capital investment.

In 2018, Hull revealed that its previous year as the UK’s City of Culture had attracted five million people, £220m of investment and 800 new jobs to the area.

North East Lincolnshire Council has also been asked for further details but had not responded by the time of publication.

Following publication of this story a spokesman for the SELCP expanded further on the partnership’s “shared ambition for culture in Lincolnshire”.

“The Arts Council permits City of Culture bids to be from a collaborative partnership who share a commitment to working together with a wide range of partners and different sectors of the community,” they said.

They added that the bid could be used to launch a new project called Boston 2030, a culmination of events celebrating the Boston Massachusetts 400th anniversary and that it would “engage the thriving cultural sector across the partnership”.

“The collaborative working for City of Culture 2029 is at its earliest stages and the process can have a hugely positive impact on place, helping to bring partners together, develop strategic cultural leadership, showcasing local heritage and setting out ambitions for the future,” they said.