Dorchester's city bid is lagging as poll puts the county town mid-table (From Thisisdorset)

Dorchester's city bid is lagging as poll puts the county town mid-table

4:00pm Saturday 11th February 2012 in Latest By Harry Hogger

Dorchester appears to be lagging behind Bournemouth and Reading in its bid to become a city.

Last year the town submitted its bid to be reclassified as a city as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year.

It is one of 26 towns now in the running for the honour and Government polling service You-Gov has carried out a survey to see which are the most deserving of the upgrade.

Of the 16,000 people surveyed, 12 per cent believed Bournemouth and Reading were the most deserving, with six per cent selecting Dorchester to place it alongside Doncaster and Chelmsford in mid-table, Tower Hamlets was judged to be the least deserving according to 28 per cent of those surveyed.

Only one town in the UK is expected to be granted city status as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, with the winners ann-ounced in the coming months.

For the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 city status went to Preston in England, Newport in Wales, Stirling in Scotland and Lisburn and Newry in Northern Ireland.

Town Crier Alistair Chisholm said that Dorchester was still in with a good chance of winning and the poll showed that a lot of people knew where the county town was.

He said: “I think considering we are only a little place getting six per cent is very encouraging.

“It’s good to know that lots of people have heard of Dorchester.”

He added: “I think we have to be generous and say that it’s nice to see our neighbour Bournemouth has come in at the top with Reading.”

Mr Chisholm said that for a small county town Dorchester had so many attractions.

He said: “We deserve to be a city and it’s a fun thing to be going in for.

“The application compiled by the town council should, regardless of whether we get city status, be made a public document to remind people of the extraordinary features and characteristics of the town.”

He added that the poll was not the end result and said that Dorchester still had an ‘excellent’ chance of winning city status.

Mayor of Dorchester Tess James said that the town council knew there would be strong competition.

She said: “As the county town we felt we would give it our best shot as Dorchester meets all the criteria and it brings to people’s minds what a great place Dorchester is.

“But we realise we are up against stronger opposition, we are just grateful we are doing so well and it is giving yet more positive publicity to Dorchester.”

The 26 places in the running

• Bolton

• Bournemouth

• Chelmsford

• Colchester

• Coleraine

• Corby

• Craigavon

• Croydon

• Doncaster

• Dorchester

• Dudley

• Dumfries

• Gateshead

• Goole

• Luton

• Medway

• Middlesbrough

• Milton Keynes

• Perth

• Reading

• Southend

• St Asaph

• St Austell

• Stockport

• Tower Hamlets

• Wrexham