Town of Culture - "Hat in the ring"

3rd MARCH 2026

So, Ross-on-Wye according to Cllr O’Driscoll is throwing “its hat in the ring” to become the UK Town of Culture 2028.
‍
The first aim is to get shortlisted, but there’s going to be a lot of competition, locally we can see Ledbury and Malvern applying, an indicator perhaps of just how many applicants there might be across the UK.
‍
If we manage to get shortlisted, £60,000 would be awarded to develop the programme of everything that would be delivered for the £3million the winning town will receive.
‍
Ross-on-Wye would aim to be the ‘small town’ finalist (population of up to 20,000), of three finalists which will include a medium and large town as well. The winner bags the £3million, and the two runners-up £250,000 to deliver a some of their plans albeit on a much smaller scale.
‍
At the moment, Cllr O’Driscoll says they want to gather from the people of Ross-on-Wye “what makes Ross unique” so that can lead the application. That said, with so many towns putting themselves forward, are some words from locals who are writing of a couple of sentences in a box going to successfully move things forward? Will what’s written be too generic and pretty much interchangeable with what any get together in any town could scribble down to get noticed?
‍
It has been suggested that what really needs to be done of course is to make the application stand out. Cutting through the noise of same-old-same-old applications by so many other towns will be the trick. Cllr O’Driscoll is incredibly headstrong, and it's said often looks troubled and confused when he listens, as if like a robot that’s programmed not to, but an ah-ha moment might fire in the Councillor's grey matter, after all, he’s not a silly man.
‍
So, culture… culture, culture… where do we start? How about the arts, creativity, performances? Well Cllr O’Driscoll has some background in the arts, touring a Sean The Sheep musical and even contributing at the Ross International Festival - a festival that he is clearly keen to look into resurrecting should Ross win because he’s mentioning it a lot. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
‍
With creativity being one theme so relevant to culture, it’s been pointed out by many people what a awful shame it is that an AI-generated logo has been used for Ross-on-Wye’s bid. It’s even been produced on a 6ft high exhibition-style sign - the god-awful logo is a garish splatter of yellow, blue and red. Cllr O’Driscoll explained its crapness with “we didn’t have any money”. This can be fixed though - Cllr O’Driscoll has been offered to have Ross-on-Wye’s Uk Town of Culture branded professionally, for free, but alas he turned the offer down. Why? Well he said the logo won’t be being used in the application process going forward so it doesn’t matter - we shall see if this turns out to be true or not.
‍
What else has been mentioned?
‍
Then there’s the old soundbite about Ross-on-Wye being the birthplace of British tourism. Has this been hammed up a bit? It goes back to William Gilpin’s book of 1782, and a two-day tour that departed from Ross-on-Wye to travel down the Wye Valley by boat to Chepstow and back. Gilpin however didn’t focus too much on Ross-on-Wye or its buildings, perhaps his quill had run out of ink that day, or perhaps Ross didn’t leave the impression on him you might imagine it did from the ‘birth of British tourism’ concocted soundbite.
‍
Here’s what Gilpin actually said, and forgive his spelling and weird oldy-worldy words, it was in the old days, even before the annoying paperclip character in the corner of Microsoft Word.....
‍
Ross stands high, and commands many distant views; but that from the church-yard is the most admired; and is indeed very amusing. It consists of an easy sweep of the Wye; and of an extensive country beyond it. But it is not picturesque. It is marked by no characteristic objects: it is broken into too many parts; and it is seen from too high a point. The spire of the church, which is the man of Ross's heaven-directed spire, tapers beautifully. The inn, which was the house he lived in, is known by the name of the man of Ross's house.
‍
At Ross, we planned our voyage down the Wye to Monmouth; and provided a covered-boat, navigated by three men. Less strength would have carried us down; but the labour is in rowing back.
‍
.....so there you go, Mr Gilpin's looking out from OUR Prospect saying the view isn’t picturesque, then he quickly notes the church and one building before planning to leave on a boat. The bastard.
‍
Hmmmm, sadly, it seems Gilpin wasn’t enamoured enough by Ross itself to write much about it - but of course what the hell does the ‘meh’ opinions of a 18th century travel blogger matter anyway? He'd have to buck his ideas up if he expects to be invited from beyond the grave to attend any ressurected festival.

The real fact is that locals and tourists all know the beauty of Ross-on-Wye. We’re all very lucky to live here.
‍
At a recent public consultation about the bid to become the UK Town of Culture, we heard a little  bit more about what could be done with the £3millon. There was talk of being able create a new venue, such as an art gallery, that the town could then keep - but we already have an art gallery above the Market House and Gallery54.
‍
Someone suggested recently that perhaps a better idea might be a museum, and no, not the public-money-drain that is the Museum Without Walls which has barely anyone use it (or even know about it) proportional to what's said to be an incredible spend. No, the kind of museum that might be interesting to visitors to the town. Perhaps full of Wye Valley exhibits and information to pull in visitors, increase the time visitors spend in the town and pull more of them in. It would certainly play into Ross-on-Wye’s claim that it is in the heart, or is the heart of the Wye Valley - something that will always resonate with potential weekend-away-ers, albeit if it's normally a message that doesn't reach that audience - Ross just isn't very well promoted considering what it has to offer, but more on the Community, Markets and Tourism side of the Town Council another day eh?
‍
Let’s go back to the International Festival that used to run over a couple of weeks, which Cllr O’Driscoll seems keen to resurrect. Back at around the millennium festivals still worked, but nowadays festivals and venues across the country are going bankrupt, they sadly just aren’t viable. Most aren’t sustainable in today’s climate where disposable incomes are low and people don’t attend events like they used to. It doesn't take an expert to observe that.
‍
It has to be questioned if an International Festival would be a wise spend of funds. Cllr O’Driscoll at least seems to want to pursue it, and said at the consultation that perhaps money could be used to buy an event marquee so we have it for the next year, and the next year. Perhaps he's more thinking of ways that the money could be spent, but not thinking of whether the idea is a good idea at this stage - perhaps that comes later.
‍
For those that don’t know, this was no tent. It was a serious outdoor marquee, with all the facilities of a permanent indoor venue. It had tiered seating to support around 1,500 people in the audience and performance stage that could host a couple of dozen performers at once, complete with full production lighting and rigging.
‍
If it was purchased, you have to wonder where would Ross-on-Wye Town Council store such a massive amount of infrastructure, and once the prize money was gone at the end of 2028, how would an event of that scale happen again? It’s a huge undertaking and would demand all sorts of serious events expertise and labour. Costs are also way increased compared to 25 years ago, another bit of context for the demise of festivals and venues.
‍
Sadly the International Festival was brought to a halt in 2002, not being financially viable. Cllr O’Driscoll also has said that he was owed £20,000 by the International Festival, so it’s not like he doesn’t know the deeply questionable feasibility of its successful resurrection.
‍
With times moved on from the early 2000s, does anyone now fancy shelling out £30? £40? £50? £60? £70? for a ticket to see a show, an artist or band down at the rope walk, then wander into another marquee for a pint of beer at £6.50 or a glass of wine for £11 - ok these numbers are speculative, but won’t be far off.

Of course, a 2028 festival could easily be put on should Ross-on-Wye win, in effect completely subsidised, but a business case and plan for the following years based on owning a hugely expensive marquee and seating but having no expertise?
‍
Perhaps an International Festival belongs as a fond memory from the past, perhaps Cllr O’Driscoll doesn’t think so. He’s not Sean the Sheepish about bringing it up, he even did in a heartbeat when he found his way onto BBC news about the Town of Culture bid.
There would certainly have to be no conflict of interest should Cllr O’Driscoll want to get involved professionally in any event, or paid-for planning for any event, seeing as he has his own production company. That company actually hasn’t done a lot in recent years going by minuscule publicly available accounts, but would there be some interest should £250,000 or a whopping £3million be floating around?
‍
Let’s put the £30million aside for a moment, and assume that would be awarded to a larger town, Stratford-upon-Avon for example(?) but that little old Ross-on-Wye could net that £250,000. What could be do with that? Now that more modest figure is easier to comprehend, but remember how we’ve found out that £20,000 was spent on a pop-up-beach in-a-box and a few social media posts? Those were of deeply questionable value, and £250,000 could be easy to blow through.
‍
What’s NOT in doubt, is that Ross-on-Wye should definitely be pursuing becoming the UK Town of Culture - the town is iconic, its beautiful, and does it have the potential to warrant the investment? YES!
‍
What would Ross do with the £30million, or a £250,000 runner-up prize? First it’s a case of getting shortlisted. How to get great value out of such huge sums would be a nice problem for Ross-on-Wye to have - luckily there are councillors who are keen to deliver much better value for money compared to projects of the past, and there is certainly financial expertise on tap too.

Clearly Cllr O'Driscoll and his Working Group need some ideas and input. Few people seem to know that members of the public can ask to be on the Working Group for the UK Town of Culture - it wasn't really shouted from any rooftops.

Write to the council and mark your envelope "I have a good idea, and would like to get involved".

----

A little extra - this article has touched upon the feasibility of projects which are expensive. For an altogether different league of non-feasilibility, Cllr Louis Stark along with Cllr Ed O'Driscoll are proposing a feasibility study (a large spend of public money) to explore reopening the Hereford --> Ross-on-Wye --> Gloucester railway line. Read about that in the Ross Gazette here.

Does taxpayer money need to be used to tell people what common sense could have? Common sense is free. The long gone lines have been built upon, there are about four tunnels, all shut and dangerous. Compulsory purchases wouldn't even be able to solve the problem. One councillor has pointed out that the British Regional Transport Association estimate the cost at between £400million - £600million. What's the feasibility that the money could even become available? (The councillor also pointed out that a tiny 3-mile stretch of new line at Portishead cost a whopping £160 million!)

With local elections coming up next year, perhaps this railway line stuff is more about attracting support through grand ideas, which is hoped to turn into support at the ballot box? Can the two councillors really get this going? Do you really want your money spent on a feasibility study?