City of Culture plans for Sheffield Mayoral hopeful Dan Jarvis

Sheffield could be in the running for UK City of Culture under new plans revealed by mayoral hopeful Dan Jarvis MP - potentially bringing in millions more investment into the city.
Dan JarvisDan Jarvis
Dan Jarvis

MP Mr Jarvis, who is the nominated Labour candidate for Sheffield City Region Mayor said that the 'Made in Sheffleld" brand needs to become as closely associated with the creative industries as it was "in the days of steel".But unlike previous winners of the prestigious UK City of Culture gong, Mr Jarvis said he wants to rebrand the bid as Sheffield City Region of Culture - also celebrating the best of Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley.He said he will also be pushing hard to ensure Channel 4 brings one of its planned regional centres to Sheffield, which he said will create hundreds of jobs in the city and also lead to the the creation of new businesses specialising in the sector.Creative Sheffield, the council's economic development arm, is leading the bid and has previously revealed the move could be worth £1.4 billion to the city’s economy over the next 15 years. He said: "All of our lives are enhanced by culture and the arts and Sheffield already has a strong cultural offering - it lifts people in their everyday lives but also creates huge economic opportunities."I am going to push very hard to make sure that this is acknowledged by bringing forward a bid for Sheffield City Region of Culture."Channel 4 is a major creative organisation which creates content for audiences from around the world and will vastly add to the creative infrastructure in South Yorkshire. I want 'Made in Sheffield' to be as big a deal in the digital age as it was in the days of steel."We have some of these companies here already, but Channel 4 would be the icing on the cake, create jobs and bringing a vast amount of investment into the Sheffield City Region."In 2017 when Hull became Uk City of Culture, it played host to more than 2,000 events and activities and brought in an additional 3.5m visitors over the year.Additionally, it led to the creation of nearly 800 jobs and almost £220m invested in the city's tourism and cultural sectors - after Hull was announced as the winner in 2013.The plan has been welcomed by both council and business leaders.Councillor Mary Lea, cabinet member for culture, parks and leisure on Sheffield city council, said: "In Sheffield we do have a great cultural offering - the best theatre outside London, reasonable prices and some great museums. I would be really happy to meet Dan and discuss his ideas."Sheffield Chamber Chief Executive Richard Wright added "This is something the city has unsuccessfully bid for before. If Dan can get it over the line as mayor he will have done well. "One only needs to look at Liverpool and Hull to see how City of Culture status really helps market a city and put it into the national spotlight. We have a fantastic cultural offer and it would be great to acknowledge that through this."Coventry has been announced as the first independent UK city of Culture post-Brexit in 2021, and it is expected that Sheffield would bid for the accolade for 2025.