Full list of towns bidding for city status revealed

Of the 39 places vying for the title, three are based in the North West and one in North Wales.

The competition is being held as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which will see the monarch granting at least one town city status. The communities hope that becoming a city will raise their profile and enable them to attract more inward investment.

This is the first year that towns in overseas territories and crown dependencies have been able to apply for the title.

Blackburn, Crewe, Warrington and Wrexham have each thrown their hat into the ring. But they face fierce competition from the likes of Warwick, Milton Keynes and the Caymans Islands capital of George Town.

The applications for city status will be reviewed by a panel, who will examine the towns’ qualifications based on cultural heritage, identity and traditions.

Winners of the competition will be announced in June 2022.

Here is the full list of towns competing for city status:

• Alcester, Warwickshire
• Ballymena, County Antrim
• Bangor, County Down
• Blackburn, Lancashire
• Bolsover, Derbyshire
• Boston, Lincolnshire
• Bournemouth, Dorset
• Coleraine, County Londonderry
• Colchester, Essex
• Crawley, West Sussex
• Crewe, Cheshire
• Doncaster, South Yorkshire
• Dorchester, Dorset
• Douglas, Isle of Man
• Dudley, West Midlands
• Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway
• Dunfermline, Fife
• Elgin, Moray
• George Town, Cayman Islands
• Gibraltar
• Goole, East Yorkshire
• Greenock, Renfrewshire
• Guildford, Surrey
• Livingston, West Lothian
• Marazion, Cornwall
• Medway, Kent
• Middlesbrough, Teesside
• Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
• Newport and Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight
• Northampton, Northamptonshire
• Oban, Argyll and Bute
• Reading, Berkshire
• Peel, Isle of Man
• St Andrews, Fife
• South Ayrshire, Ayrshire and Arran
• Stanley, Falkland Islands
• Warrington, Cheshire
• Warwick, Warwickshire
• Wrexham, North Wales