Culture bid is well deserved

With a vandal attack on a mosque and two people up for causing unnecessary suffering to a pony ... you could say we picked the wrong day to promote Sunderland’s City of Culture bid.

Certainly the detractors are not slow to pour scorn the city’s bid and stories like these serve to add grist to the moaning mill.

With every culture bid story we run, there are those who take to social media and our letters page to question the city’s credentials for such a prestigious title.

We respect people’s right to have their say, but when it comes to our city’s culture bid, the criticism can become tiresome.

Name a city that doesn’t have eyesores, crime or social problems blighting parts of its community.

London is home to our nation’s greatest cultural treasures, but it is also no stranger to violent crime and social deprivation.

The graffiti attack on Sunderland Central Mosque and the offence against the horse are abhorrent, but they are not a measure of our city’s cultural aspirations.

Look hard enough and you can find fault in any community. The city of culture bid is about highlighting the good in Sunderland.

Those mentioned in our bid story - including the National Glass Centre, Sunderland Empire and even the ukulele group at Hylton Castle - only scratch the surface of the creative drive and ambition in Sunderland.

We have as much right to be in the running for the City of Culture award as any other and more reasons than most to win it.

Just look for the positive stories and inspirational people in your community, there’s plenty of them to be found, if only you are willing to look.