At yesterday evening’s (Tuesday 12 October) special meeting of the Council to discuss applying for city status, councillors voted 21-10 against pressing ahead with the bid.
Members were told in a chief officers’ report that a three-week survey run on the Council’s website and social media platforms resulted in a combined overall 42.56% (758 votes) of participants in favour and 57.44% (1,023 votes) against.
The total number of votes cast was 1,781. Based on the population of Merthyr Tydfil being 59,100, just over 3% (3.01%) took part in the survey.
Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Transformation and Commercialisation Cllr Geraint Thomas said: “I’m very disappointed with the decision, but on this occasion, the Council has voted not to submit an application for city status.
“We’ve considered all the feedback and it’s important to note evidence that there was a large audience which was undecided or not engaged. The Facebook data, for example, highlighted that 874 people viewed the content, but only 181 proceeded to vote.”
“However, members have been listening to residents’ feedback and feel that now is not the appropriate time. We’re aware we have challenges to address, but we still have aspirations to apply again in future.”
