Chelmsford granted city status

In her Diamond Jubilee year, the Queen has granted Chelmsford as a city. Along with Perth in Scotland and St Asaph in North Wales, Her Royal Majesty granted three cities on three corners of the country a new city status in order to help mark the celebration of her 60th year as our monarch.

As the county town of Essex and with a population stretching to around 160,000, many people would say that this news has been a long time coming. Most importantly due to the cathedral, which is often a defining aspect of a city, many people have argued the case of Chelmsford's city status for quite some time.

Chelmsford Cathedral

After 24 towns across the UK placed a bid to win a competition to be officially granted as a city, Chelmsford fought off some strong competitors, including Middlesbrough, Bolton and even Reading, the bookies favourite due to being the largest town in the country. With just 18/1 odds, the outlook did not seem particularly promising, so the news came as a shock to the council and to those who helped to place the bid.

Chelmsford even beat Colchester and Southend to claim the title, becoming the first ever city in Essex. It seems only just that the county town should become a city before any others.

With so many assets that would be expected from a city, it only seems about time that Chelmsford should be upgraded from a town to a city. Anglia Ruskin University has, in recent years, been expanded using a £81 million investment and is one of the largest universities in Eastern England.

Chelmsford also boasts multiple top-class high schools, each varying greatly in specialities; these include Moulsham High School specialising in Humanities, Boswells School in Performing Arts, Great Baddow High School in Sport, as well as the two grammar schools, Chelmsford County High School and King Edward Grammar School, which are within the top schools in the country.

The former town also provides various superb amenities that you would expect from a fantastic city.

With a fantastic high street and two shopping precincts, The Meadows and High Chelmer, Chelmsford is packed full of retail opportunities. With John Lewis on its way for 2013, Chelmsford will be complete with virtually every popular high street store that the country is offered.

Chelmsford's Broomfield Hospital is the largest in Essex and with a substantial re-development in recent years, various new facilities have been added. The St Andrew's Centre within the hospital is worldly renowned for its specialist work for people suffering with burns and a cleft lip or palate.

Substantial development: Broomfield Hospital's new building

The sporting successes within Chelmsford have been awaited this news for quite some time, with Chelmsford's football club being called Chelmsford City! Chelmsford is also home to Essex County Cricket Ground, as well as ice hockey team Chelmsford Chieftans. It will also welcome the Olympic Torch as part of the Olympic Festival celebrations in July.

Chelmsford receives media attention through the V Festival, held in Hylands Park, every year. With some of the UK's and the world's biggest musical artists coming to Chelmsford every year, it seems only right that the likes of Eminem and Rihanna, who performed at the festival in 2011, should be welcomed into the City of Chelmsford, as opposed to the town.

Crowds pack out at the annual V Festival in Hylands Park

Having been specifically chosen by the Queen to be one of the three places representing her within her Diamond Jubilee year, Chelmsford should hopefully receive the appropriate positive publicity that it deserves, as a place packed full to the brim of exceptional facilities and figures. The news should attract business and investment into what is a bustling and successful city of the UK.

Why should there be doubts for hiring the Essex 'working class twang'?

Reports have said that around 70% of business leaders in a recent poll would have 'serious doubts' about hiring someone who spoke with an Essex 'working class accent', but people based in Scottish and Home counties have an accent that promotes 'hard work and success'. I'm sad to say that I'm not totally shocked by this news, but I still completely disagree with these opinions.

With the increase in popularity of the county, Essex finds itself in the media and in the press much more now than it may have done 5-10 years ago. With TV shows like TOWIE, a stereotypical image of Essex girls, and also the boys to some extent, has been portrayed but my opinion is that this image is not entirely true.

Yes, some people in Essex enjoy a spray tan or a session in a sun-bed.
Yes, some people in Essex will have hair extensions, fake eye lashes and fake nails.
And yes, some people in Essex do speak with this typical accent that you hear from the likes of Amy Childs and Sam Faiers.

But - you could find this anywhere! Take a look at Geordie Shore, Desperate Scousewives etc; all of these programmes feature the extreme characters of the region who fully portray the stereotypical image that adheres to the entertainment needs of the public. But take a look further into Newcastle and I'm sure they're not all like the characters from the hit MTV show. Similarly, in Essex, if you branch out, you can find some really beautiful areas that highlight the opposite side of the county that the public never get to see.

It must be remembered, that in TOWIE, a show well known for fitting into the 'dram-ality' genre, many of the scenes are set up for entertainment purposes. Whilst the characters are real people whose lives are fully documented in the show, many of the things we see would not happen in real life it wasn't for the producers asking certain questions and placing them in certain situations. (This isn't to say that the show isn't an entertaining and a hugely interesting watch on a Sunday and Wednesday evening.)

If somebody asked you, what do you think of when you think of Essex, you're likely to answer with the orange tans and hair extensions that you witness in TOWIE. It is debatable whether anybody would consider the top-class education available in Essex. Colchester County High School, King Edwards Grammar School and Chelmsford County High School are three of the country's best schools, with the highest attainment on the League Tables. The latter two, based in Chelmsford, have become so popular that they've had to enforce a tighter catchment area, as so many people across the wider areas of Essex and into London have been applying for places and attending the schools.

So why is it that businesses are feeling reluctant to hire people from Essex? With the best education available across the whole country, businesses should be recognising the intelligence that Essex holds and should be revelling in the talent available to them.

If you take a look at the huge successes that have come out of Essex, it is clear that the county boasts an enormous amount of talent that shows the large capability of people from Essex, that is not being fully understood by these companies:

Olly Murs, Pixie Lott and Jessie J are three of the biggest names in pop in 2012 and continue to progress in the music industry with #1 singles and albums.

Jeff Brazier, Denise van Outen and of course Dermot O'Leary are three of the country's most successful TV presenters, with Dermot even presenting the E! Coverage of the BAFTAs last night, broadcast around the world. You can't be much more successful in the industry than that.

Everybody knows Jamie Oliver, one of the country's most recognised and best-loved chefs, as well as being  Britain's second biggest selling author.

And Essex is even progressing across the pond. Russell Brand and Nick Frost, both Essex boys, have starred in hugely successful films, both in the UK and the USA.

If these names don't promote the hard-work and success previously mentioned from the Scottish and Home counties, I don't know what does.

Everybody in Essex should embrace their accent and be proud of their Essex origin, as it seems clear, success can come from the county, despite the views held by some companies and journalists.

Essex wins at the NTAs!

The annual National Television Awards took place this week at the O2 Arena with the ceremony broadcast on ITV. Hosted by Colchester's Dermot O'Leary, he started off the celebrations for the evening.

The show opened with a performance from our very own Stacey Solomon, who captured our heart's last year on X Factor, as well as last Autumn on I'm A Celebrity. Solomon performed with her fellow campmate, Shaun Ryder. Stacey started the performance singing 'Feeling Good', formerly by Nina Simone - a song that she performed whilst competing in The X Factor alongside Joe McElderry and Olly Murs. Ryder then joined her on the stage to sing Happy Mondays hit 'Step On'.

Stacey was soon on the stage again whilst collecting the award for Entertainment Programme, that was deservedly won by 'I'm a Celebrity'. Stacey graced the stage again towards the end of the night whilst presenting the award for Most Popular Serial Drama to Eastenders.

However, Stacey wasn't our only X Factor star performing at the ceremony. Matt Cardle took to the stage to perform his Christmas Number One hit single, When We Collide. Singing and playing the guitar, Cardle wow-ed the audience with the incredible voice that won him last year's X Factor. He also took to the stage alongside Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole to collect the award for Talent Show, that X Factor beat Strictly & Dancing On Ice to.

The Inbetweeners picked up the award for Digital Choice - a new award that is awarded to the best TV show on digital channels. Alongside fellow co-stars Simon Bird (Will) and Blake Harrison (Neil), Essex boy Joe Thomas (Simon) collected the award with his girlfriend and co-star Hannah Tointon, also of an Essex background and sister to Strictly Come Dancing winner, Kara Tointon. Joe Thomas attended King Edward Grammar School for boys (KEGS) in Chelmsford before attending Cambridge University.

Congratulations to all the winners from the night, especially to I'm A Celebrity, X Factor & The Inbetweeners.
Roll on The Brits on the 15th February for some more Essex award-winners!