166/99
A competition for the grant of city status to mark the Millennium is being launched today. Local authorities in England and Northern Ireland who wish to be considered for this honour should submit their applications to the Home Office no later than Wednesday 1 September 1999. Applications on behalf of towns in Wales and Scotland should be submitted to the Welsh and Scottish Offices respectively.
Letters are being sent today to towns that have expressed an interest in this honour inviting them to submit formal applications.
Her Majesty will confer the new city next year, by Letters Patent, acting on the advice of Ministers. The date of the announcement is to be decided.
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
1. City status is granted by personal Command of The Queen, on the advice of Ministers, as a mark of special distinction.
2. The Home Secretary announced that Her Majesty had expressed the intention of marking both the Millennium and the 50th Anniversary of Her Accession to the throne by grants of city status in answer to a Parliamentary Question from Ms Jenny Jones MP on 27 October 1998 (Hansard Col. 122).
3. This honour is sparingly bestowed. Only 14 new grants have been made since the beginning of this century; the most recent were to Armagh and St. David''s in 1994, in recognition of their long and venerable Christian traditions.
4. It is open to towns in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to apply for this honour. Applications should be submitted by the local authority and may take whatever form is felt best to present the town''s case.
5. City status is not, and never has been a right that can be claimed by a town fulfilling certain conditions. The use of specific criteria could lead to a town claiming city status as of a right; which in turn might devalue the honour. All applications are considered on their individual merits.
6. No date has yet been set for the announcement of the new city. The grant of this honour will confer no additional powers or functions on the town.
