ANOTHER red rose contender has joined the running to become Britain's newest city as part of celebrations to mark the millennium.

Town hall chiefs in Blackburn and Darwen will now face competition from Blackpool as well as Preston and Bolton as the race for city status hots up.

Council chiefs in the resort have decided to go ahead with a bid to become a city and, like every other entrant, will get two bites at the cherry, with one city being created to mark the millennium and another, in 2002, to mark the Queen's 50th anniversary on the throne.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's bid has now been virtually completed and will be submitted to the Home Office in the autumn. The council's unitary status and the town's cathedral are likely to be among the list of things emphasised as the area's city-like features. But Blackpool, too, has unitary status, which means its council services are provided independently of Lancashire County Council.

Blackpool achieved independence as part of the same local government review which gave Blackburn with Darwen unitary status in April, 1998.

Apart from the Lancashire towns in contention for the big prizes, other places which have submitted bids include Stockport, Croydon, Colchester, Ipswich, Swindon, Colchester, Milton Keynes and Wolverhampton.

If Blackburn and Darwen wins it will be the first city with a double barrelled name, although a bid from the borough of Brighton and Hove may also achieve that distinction.

A spokesman for the council said: "The Blackpool bid makes absolutely no difference to our own.

"We have been very clear from the start about what we think our strengths are and we think we have an excellent case to put forward.

Sunderland was the last town to be converted into a city in the early 1990s.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.