Lancashire 2025 appoints experts to bid team

The team which is bidding to see Lancashire named as the City of Culture in 2025 has recruited four new specialists.

Ben Blackman, operations director, Sarah Rowland, project producer, Andrew Chetty, technology and strategy consultant and Loz Kaye, citizen engagement manager all join the team.

Graham Baldwin, vice chancellor of University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), has also been appointed to the board of Lancashire 2025.

The team will be the first county-scale cultural programme to compete for City if Culture status and the first time a submission will have envisaged a county as one ‘virtual city’.

The drive is led by Debbi Lander, bid director, and Tony Attard, chair of the board of Lancashire 2025. 

Tony said: "Over the last year we have made good progress in terms of developing the extraordinary ‘virtual city’ vision for Lancashire2025, and beginning the vital stakeholder and community engagement that will be crucial to Lancashire’s success.

"We’re now delighted to welcome this exceptional group of creative individuals, who will help Debbi as bid director. Together they have many years of experience, as well as the broad range of skills and networks now needed to take our Lancashire2025 bid to the next level."

Lancashire 2025 has also commissioned FutureGov, a national change agency, and Manifesto, an award-winning agency of creatives, strategists and technologists, to work on a project to engage with Lancashire's 1.5million citizens which is due to launch this spring.

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