DOVER has failed in its bid to become a city for the second. Mayor Cllr Diane Smallwood said she was disappointed, but the town council would try again if the opportunity arose.

The Queen originally invited towns to submit city bids to mark the Millennium and to mark her Golden Jubilee. Dover submitted applications for both, but was not chosen for the Millennium, and is not among the five towns named to become cities as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

The honours went to Preston, Newport in Wales, Stirling, and Northern Ireland's Lisburn and Newry. More than 40 towns had competed for the keenly-contested honour.

City status carries no special powers for the winners but it is deemed such an honour that only 17 grants were made in the entire 20th century. Brighton and Hove, Inverness and Wolverhampton were granted city status to mark the Millennium.