Leadership blog - 21.12.18

In my last blog I reflected on the amazing, world class events that Sunderland has hosted this year and there has been so much more to make 2018 an outstanding year for our city.

At the start of the year, before the events even got underway, I was delighted at the news that visitor numbers were up six per cent on the year before. That meant a £429 million boost for the city's economy.

Then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made a special visit to our beautiful Northern Spire in the final stages of its construction. It opened in August and aside from its majesty as a stunning landmark and phenomenal feat of engineering, it is a hugely important part of the city's economic and transport infrastructure. Work also started this year on the International Advanced Manufacturing Park next to Nissan, where around 7,000 jobs will be created.

I was incredibly proud of teams right across the council when we had a visit from the 'Beast from the East' in March and their efforts to keep the city moving and people as safe as possible in the heaviest snowfall we've had in years.

Continuing the theme of moving around, there was plenty to encourage people to be active and enjoy the city's sights and scenery in the spring and summer months with high profile runs, bike rides and walks and a series of community festivals.

As we work in partnership to regenerate the city, creating more jobs and improving employment opportunities for residents, it's vitally important that we continue to focus on skills so that people can access the jobs available now and in the future in the city and wider region. That's why our annual Work Discovery Week for young people is so important and it was wonderful to see over 1,000 secondary school pupils explore jobs and careers with all sorts of businesses and employers in June. The icing on the cake was the announcement that the University of Sunderland had been chosen as one of only five universities in the country to open a new medical school.

We then had the magnificent Tall Ships Races and the 30^th Sunderland Airshow which I talked about last time. The spectacular Broadway hit Wicked returned to the Empire in September and then the autumn and festive seasons were upon us with the wonderful Sunderland Illuminations and fantastic things to see and do for all the family in the lead up to Christmas.

I could genuinely go on for pages about the brilliant year we've had in our wonderful city but I shall leave it there as we look ahead to another exciting year in 2019. In the meantime I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Cllr Graeme Miller
Leader