LUTON’S bid for city status hit the heights yesterday morning as council chief executive Trevor Holden joined a team of abseilers who climbed down the Town Hall’s giant clock tower.
Mr Holden, Councillor Joan Bailey, corporate director for environment and regeneration Colin Chick and business manager Sinead McNamara were all ‘arrested’ as they reached the Town Hall steps following the 144ft descent – but only by Inspector Morse and Lewis star Kevin Whately as part of a wacky publicity stunt aimed at boosting the bid’s profile.
Mr Whately added his name to an online petition calling for the Love Luton city bid to be successful.
He told the Luton News: “Luton is important in a lot of ways, not least the airport and the industry and the way it’s trying to reinvent itself and its closeness to the M1, but basically for Bedfordshire.
“There isn’t another city in Bedfordshire and it deserves one and Luton deserves to be it.
“It’s got a community feel and I’m very fond of the place.”
Luton is up against other towns from across the country, including Milton Keynes and Reading, in the race to be awarded city status as part of the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations.
Following the abseil, Mr Holden said: “It was fantastic, the adrenaline rush as you come over the edge was brilliant.
“It’s a phenomenal view of the town and everything that’s changing, it makes you think this is a city in waiting.
“It was my idea primarily because ever since I’ve been here I’ve thought what would it be like to abseil off that clock tower and I found a reason to do it.
“We want people to sign the petition and make sure we’re the city status winners, Luton deserves it.
“The support has been phenomenal.
“Everyone is getting behind it and it’s unifying the town.
“I’m certainly not aware of any other chief executives jumping off their Town Hall and I know we’ve put a lot of effort into the bid, but the serious side is that we want Luton to be a city, we want Luton to progress. This is all part of making sure we secure the bright future that Luton deserves.”
> To find out more about the city status bid and for a link to the petition log onto www.loveluton.org.uk. To watch Natalee Hazelwood’s video report log onto www.lutontoday.co.uk.