Carlisle council leader says it's time to ditch 'Great Border City' tag

By Nick Turner

Last updated at 12:16, Thursday, 31 May 2012

Carlisle should ditch its “dated Border City slogan”, say leading politicians.

Have your say

Shame this debate is degenerating into a blame the scots name-calling fest. Oh and it is SCOTS not SCOTCH!

Posted by Craig on 6 June 2012 at 12:35

Well said Richard Coates for the suggestion of "Gateway": Perhaps "The Great Border Gateway City" could be adopted? The use of the word "Gateway" has positive connotations and could also imply a forward-thinking, forward-looking city as well as all the factual "gateway" aspects of Carlisle; a gateway to The Lakes, The Borders, Hadrian's Wall, England, Scotland, The Solway Coast, The North Pennines...

Anyway, there have been some good suggestions as to how Dr. Hendry might prioritise various issues and all of them, near unanimously would seem to (rightly) belittle the "knowledge city" slogan/brand. Dr. Hendry would do well to recognise the body of opinion on here and the view of the majority in the poll conducted on this site.

Carlisle with the slogan "Knowledge" would fail to attract much needed tourist income from The Far East - Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese would all flock to East Anglia!!!

Posted by BM on 6 June 2012 at 11:30

why dont the "politicians" concentrate on cleaning up the city instead of messing with history. strange that its a scotsman advocating the change. Put it to the tax payers of carlisle ie a referendum, but they wont like the answer so will just fudge around as usual

Posted by walter oswald on 6 June 2012 at 10:58

yeah, why not change it to:

CARLISLE THE GREAT ROTTING CITY - it would certainly get more attention.

Posted by Sue on 6 June 2012 at 09:26

All the 'border city' slogan says to me is Carlisle is a city on the border of England with historic roots. To change the slogan would be a huge waste of money and would not imporove Carlisle image. If officials are worried about the image of the city they should focus on bringing the run down areas back up to scratch.

Posted by anon on 5 June 2012 at 21:50

My Wife recently spoke to a bed and breakfast owner who when asked how business was, replied that it was a good job Carlisle had Hadrians wall to attract business to her guest house. Nothing wrong there with The Great Border City description. Much of my time in business I had to explain where Carlisle was; I used to repeat The Great Border City description to explain where the location was and then there was understanding. Sorry Politicians, get real; you know very little and are just trying to grasp at straws for ideas to change things for changes sake. Our economy needs a lift that airport development alone can bring and all cities in The United Kingdom that have backed better transport links bar none, have benefited. Get behind Andrew Tinkler; consultants like polititions have no business instincts and our young people deserve better than soundbites.

Posted by DAVID BELL on 5 June 2012 at 18:42

Weel Joe me lad thoos med a reet feul of thesel by openin thee gob in wrang place.Ah believe thoos frae ower the border so how wud you like it if we border city folkes changed thy names and rebranded owt north of carel 'North of England,' cos thats where it is,an do away wid Scotland name. Thoo knows how it is now wid us so hoos aboot you ganan backon yer word afore fowk her reject thee for good.a public apology ont toon hall steps will do as a compromise, We canna be aw wrang Joe we live and bide in our Border City.

Posted by Bryan C on 5 June 2012 at 18:36

Joe Hendry should really spend his time figuring out why a City with an enviable history like ours attracts so few tourists compared with 'less historically important' cities like Chester. A trawl through the Council Archives would be a good place to start.

Posted by Who Knows on 5 June 2012 at 13:28

I HAVE DISCUSSED WITH SEVERAL TOURISTS, INCLUDING THOSE FROM ABROAD. EACH FIRMLY IN FAVOUR OF 'GREAT BORDER CITY'. THEIR COMPLAINT IS THE LACK OF READY ACCESS TO A FULLER ARRAY OF INFORMATION OF HISTORIC CARLISLE. PLEASE 'CUMBERLAND NEWS' ARRANGE FOR ALL INFORMATION (HIDDEN GEMS) TO BE LOGGED WITH YOU. THIS CAN BE CONVERTED INTO SUITABLE FORM AND PUBLISHED +UP-DATED. THUS THE 'TOURIST MENU WILL BE WIDER, CLEARER AND IMPROVED. MY STARTER:'THE PLACE (ENTHRALLING TO STAND THERE) IN LOWTHER ST. CHURCH WHERE WOODROW WILSON STOOD AS HE ADDRESSED THE CONGREGATION PRIOR TO CONTINUANCE OF HIS JOURNEY TO THE POST 1914-18 WORLD WAR PARIS PEACE CONFERANCE. I KNEW A PERSON (MR FORSYTH OF CUMBERLAND BUILDING SOCIETY) WHO WAS IN THE CHURCH CONGREGATION THAT DAY. MANY AMERICAN TOURISTS VISIT CARLISLE.

Posted by OLD LOCHINVAR on 5 June 2012 at 11:13

"Carlisle, it's alright, but it's not quite Scarborough."

Seems about right to me, thanks for the inspiration JLS ;0)

Posted by Dan on 5 June 2012 at 09:44