2023 bandwagon may be unstoppable

Adocument which promises to unlock such riches for Dundee deserved the send-off it was given by the city’s people. The effect on the city and surrounding region of a successful application to be named Capital of Culture 2023 should not be over-estimated.

One need only look to the transformative nature Glasgow’s 1990 win had to see the potential for Dundee, a post-industrial city with many of the same issues.

Since the V&A Dundee was first mooted, and aided by a pair of world-facing universities and burgeoning creative industries sector, culture has been at the forefront of an ambitious and ongoing period of change.

The ripple effect has proved positive for wider Tayside as well. Perth, for example, took inspiration from its larger neighbour and, while it lost its City of Culture bid, it still looks likely to tap into the momentum generated.

The 2023 bid team promises “the most ambitious cultural programme ever planned for the city” and backers desperately want the populace to buy into it.

It would be easier to rally support if the document’s contents were not such a closely-guarded secret.

Hopefully now the deadline for bids has passed, that caution can be eased and the promised projects and activities can be revealed.

If they capture the imagination, the Dundee bid could prove irresistible.