Early in 2026, Richmond Yorkshire CIC took on one of its most ambitious projects yet: coordinating a bid for Richmond to become the UK's very first Town of Culture in 2028. A dedicated bid team and steering group was formed, drawing on expertise across youth culture, communications and event programming, with CIC director Marcia McLuckie leading the effort. The prize on offer was significant - £3 million for the overall winner to stage a year-long cultural programme in 2028, with runners-up receiving £250,000 each - and the ambition matched it, with early conversations already exploring how a win could benefit not just Richmond but the wider Swale Valley, including Reeth, Aldbrough St John and Kiplin.

With an expression of interest due to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by the end of March, the CIC launched a programme of public engagement to bring residents into the process. A Facebook group was set up to gather stories, ideas and memories of what makes Richmond special, and the bid quickly attracted high-profile backing - from Richmond's own mayor and North Yorkshire councillors through to Richmond and Northallerton MP Rishi Sunak, who raised the bid in the House of Commons, and neighbouring Northallerton Town Council, which chose to support Richmond's application rather than submit a rival bid of its own.

By late March, the CIC had submitted Richmond's formal expression of interest, backed by a coalition of local organisations including the Green Howards Regimental Museum, the Georgian Theatre Royal, The Station, Richmond Castle and Catterick Garrison's Veterans History Club. In June, with judges finalising their shortlist, the bid team also found itself responding to an unusual last-minute request from government officials - a “postcard from your town” - commissioned from Marrick-based artist Martin Lever and submitted just in time.

In July, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed that Richmond's bid, one of 398 entries nationally, had not made the final shortlist of 15. It was, inevitably, a disappointing outcome for everyone involved - but not, in the CIC's view, a wasted one. Reflecting on the bid's legacy, Mrs McLuckie noted that bringing so many organisations and individuals together had real value in itself, regardless of the result.

That legacy is already bearing fruit. The network of partners, ideas and goodwill built during the bid has fed directly into other projects now benefiting the town - among them the Richmond Shine Project, running right through to December 2027. What began as a bid for national recognition has left Richmond with something arguably more valuable: a town-wide coalition ready and willing to pitch for whatever comes next.