The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
City status joy as Dunfermline wins royal jubilee prize
Dunfermline has been named Scotland’s newest city as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The royal honour makes it the first city in Fife and the eighth in Scotland, after Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Stirling, Aberdeen, Inverness and Perth.
Dunfermline is among eight new cities across the UK and was the only successful Scottish entry this year, with Dumfries, Elgin, Greenock, Livingston, Oban, St Andrews and South Ayrshire missing out.
Councillors were so determined to submit the best bid possible that they were still working on it until six minutes before the deadline.
And their success has now been hailed as a huge victory and “an achievement beyond our wildest dreams”.
The accolade comes a decade after Perth was given city status as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
It wasn’t to be for Dunfermline in 2012 but Fife councillors decided to submit their application for the royal honour to mark 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II was crowned.
Winning city status can provide a boost to local communities and open up opportunities for those who live there.
In 2012, Dr Steve Musson, of the University of Reading, found a new city status can bring an economic boost.
He researched eight cities honoured in 2000 and 2002 and all but one outperformed their regional counterparts in terms of increasing investment and reducing unemployment.
Similar research found the local economy in Perth expanded by 12% in the decade since it was granted city status.
The announcement comes as Dunfermline prepares to celebrate a number of historic milestones.
Dunfermline Abbey will mark 950 years this year, while the Alhambra Theatre is celebrating its centenary.
And with jubilee celebrations taking place in Pittencrieff Park in June, city status is the icing on the cake.
Former Dunfermline councillor Helen Law, who helped lead the application, said: “I’ve lived in this area all my life and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
“This award raises the status of Dunfermline and it’s great it’s getting the recognition it deserves.
“We’ve got all this history and heritage but it’s also about looking forward.”
Helen was a Labour councillor for many years until she stepped down just before the election.
And she, along with a team of others, began work on the submission in 2012.
She said: “Perth had the successful bid then and, although there were discussions about us submitting one, it was felt we weren’t ready.
“You can bet your bottom dollar we were ready this time.”
Fife Provost Jim Leishman said: “City status will help us grow economically and as a tourist destination and will have a positive impact on Dunfermline and the surroundings.”
Dunfermline MP Douglas Chapman added: “After years of championing Dunfermline’s case for formal city status, I’m delighted to see it’s now been awarded and now everyone connected with Dunfermline can genuinely say: ‘We are a city!’
“This is an achievement beyond our wildest dreams and today we become Scotland’s eighth city and we can all feel as proud as a Dunfermline peacock.”
For the first time, the competition was open to applications from the Crown dependencies and overseas territories.
The applications were evaluated by a panel of experts and Cabinet Office ministers and a recommendation was put to the Queen.
The eight places chosen to become cities are: Bangor, Northern Ireland Colchester, England Doncaster, England Douglas, Isle of Man Dunfermline, Scotland Milton Keynes, England Stanley, Falkland Islands Wrexham, Wales
Congratulations to Dunfermline, Scotland’s newest city. The ancient seat of Kings of Scotland has been conferred with the status as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations being staged to mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.
It is a fantastic and richly-deserved honour and will hopefully provide Dunfermline – already an on-the-up location with a growing population and an improved sense of its place in the world – with the confidence to push on even further.
What “city status” will actually mean to ordinary Dunfermline residents – or the seven other new cities across the UK and overseas territories – is difficult to quantify.
But anything that further raises Dunfermline’s profile, and that of the Kingdom of Fife more widely, is welcome and can do no harm in the perennial fight to retain jobs and talent locally and attract inward investment.
Perth has been on a rollercoaster ride economically and socially since it was conferred with city status at the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
But it is now a more self-assured place and is looking forward to major developments including the return of the Stone of Destiny to a refurbished city hall.
There is no reason why Dunfermline cannot make similar progress as it sheds its Auld Grey Toun moniker and moves into a new era as the confident, striving Auld Grey City.
“Anything that raises Dunfermline’s profile is welcome