St Albans misses out on Lord Mayoralty

ST ALBANS has lost out on its bid to have a Lord Mayor it was announced yesterday.

The city had entered the Lord Mayoralty competition along with 12 other cities but Armagh in Northern Ireland was declared the winner.

Daniel Goodwin, chief executive of St Albans district council, said: “Naturally, we are disappointed that the district has missed out this time round, particularly since a new Lord Mayoralty is granted so rarely, the last one being in 2002.”

He said it would have been a great boost for tourism in the city, especially before the Olympics and ahead of the 800th Magna Carta anniversary in 2013.

He added: “Nevertheless, I think St Albans can be very proud of itself. We are a city and district of great civic pride, history and heritage, with a very strong sense of community, and this came across strongly in our application. The work that was done to develop our proposal is being used as the basis for a refreshed approach to tourism and so I am glad to say there was very little wasted effort in the process.”

Mr Goodwin acknowledged that competition was always going to be tough when the city was pitted against places like Cambridge, Bath and Durham.

The competition was launched by the Queen to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.