D&G Council considering new bid for Dumfries to achieve city status
Dumfries could become the only city in southern Scotland, as part of plans to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee next year.
MSP Emma Harper has opened talks with Dumfries and Galloway Council to assess support for submitting a bid, after a previous application for city status was rejected in 2011.
Several UK towns are to be granted Civic Honours to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Her Majesty ascending the throne.
The last attempt to have the town reclassified as a city came in 2011, but was ruled invalid as it emerged that the application had not come from the council.
However, this time the council have expressed their support for the motion. Council Leader Elaine Murray said “When I received the Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Lord True’s letter I recognised the potential for Dumfries to bid for city status, and asked senior officers to consider how to take this forward.
“I was pleased to learn from some of our parliamentarians that they would be supportive, and look forward to developing proposals in partnership with other stakeholders. At this expression of interest stage, we are looking at what an application would mean for Dumfries and the region.”
Scotland currently has seven cities - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling.
Traditionally, a place needed to have a cathedral in order to be considered a city. Now, a town has to submit a report in order to be considered, and the definition of a city in the UK is a place which has been granted city status by the monarch.