Green light given to Dumfries city status bid

A council has agreed to back a bid to secure city status for a south of Scotland town.

If successful it would see the honour assigned to Dumfries to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

A previous bid in 2011 was dismissed after it emerged it had not come from Dumfries and Galloway Council.

However, this time it has agreed to support an application which will have to be submitted later this year to try to secure the status.

A working group will now be set up to take the plans forward.

Scotland currently has seven cities - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling - with Dumfries hoping to become the eighth.

Councillor Tracey Little - who also has the ceremonial role as provost of Dumfries - said seeking the status was a "no-brainer".

"Anything that positively influences our region we should be surging ahead with," she said.

"We will finally be on the map that we keep saying we are not on.

"Even if the bid is unsuccessful it is shining a light on our region."

Concerns were raised about how much time and money would be spent on submitting the bid.

However, councillors were told the process was now very streamlined and entirely online which should ensure it was not too onerous.

There have also been offers from a number of groups to assist with the bid.

Council leader Elaine Murray said she was happy to see the application go forward on the basis that it should not take up too much staff time or be too expensive.

She also added that she wanted to ensure that any bid would try to benefit the whole region and not just the town of Dumfries itself.