Perth’s bid for city status hangs in the balance according to Provost John Hulbert, who has admitted he is “optimistic but not confident” of success.
Dr Hulbert is pinning his hopes on a last-minute change of heart by the competition organisers who are set to announce the winner next year.
He believes it is “very unlikely” Perth will be the sole UK winner, such is the competition from England, and remains determined to ensure there are winners both north and south of the border.
The town’s written entry to the contest featuring 25 pages of text and a further 25 pages of pictures was unanimously approved by Perth and Kinross Council last week and is now with printers pending submission.
Although councillors believe their bid is strong, Perth faces competition from at least 11 English towns as it seeks to regain city status as the Queen celebrates her diamond jubilee in 2012.
They are Reading, Bolton, Medway, Guildford, Colchester, Milton Keynes, Luton, Cheltenham, Ipswich, Middlesbrough and Bury St Edmunds with the smallest of those more than twice the size of Perth.
Ballymena in Northern Ireland and the Welsh towns of Llanelli and Wrexham are also set to be involved, making the fight a difficult one for Perth to win.
“When people speak to me about city status they use phrases like ‘When will we get our city status?'” Dr Hulbert said. “They imply a certainty that the award will be coming to Perth, which I am afraid is misplaced.One winner”First Labour and then the Conservative governments have insisted that there will be only one winner for the UK.
“Early on we sought to find out how many other applicants there would be and we soon found out that in England there were probably going to be 11 applicants, including some very strong ones, together with two towns from Wales and one from Ireland.
“Perth, however, is the only contender to emerge from Scotland and this has enabled us to gather support for our claim from all over the country, the leaders of all the Scottish political parties, all six MEPs, the provosts and lord provosts of the existing Scottish cities and many others.”
Dr Hulbert added, “I think it is very unlikely that Perth will be the sole UK winner. However, those who make the rules can change them and the objective of the discussions with Mr Cameron by First Minister Alex Salmond and the secretary of state for Scotland Michael Moore MP will be to ensure that Scotland has a winner as well as England.
“The phrase I use when asked is that I am optimistic but not confident. I think that is a fair assessment of the situation.”
The provost believes “the whole of Scotland” would be disappointed if Perth were not successful in its bid and pledged that the council and its supporters would continue to fight for a change of heart.
“Once we have lodged the claim document that must not be the end of our campaign,” he said.
“We already have a group of advocates for our cause. These include MPs and members of the House of Lords, people from the media, some judges and others, all of whom move in and out of the circles of influence that will decide our application’s fate.
“Our objective is to get them talking about Perth and our claim. We must continue with our programme of lobbying until the decision is announced and we will do just that.”