ROSS-ON-WYE has been overlooked to become the UK's first Town of Culture as none of the towns in the Midlands made the national shortlist.

The 15-strong shortlist, released last week by the government's department for Culture, Media and Sport listed Basildon, Birkenhead, Grimsby and Rotherham among the larger places in the running for the title of the while Corby, Great Yarmouth, Leith, Pontypridd, and Port Talbot were listed as were smaller towns such as Ilfracombe, Isle of Bute, Lerwick, Sandown, Strabane, and Stockton.

Each place will now receive a £60,000 funding boost to develop a full bid and then three winners - best small, medium and large town bid - will be chosen by an independent judging panel early next year.

An overall winner from these three finalists then will be crowned the UK Town of Culture 2028 and receive a £3 million grant to host cultural events.

At Monday’s meeting of Ross Town Council Cllr Ed O’Driscol reported that Ross-on-Wye had a strong bid, but sadly it wasn’t up to the strengths of other towns bids.

He added: “A number of market towns in this county put in a range of excellent bids and we are suggesting that Herefordshire Council use this information to boost local tourism.”

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy congratulated the shortlisted places, while wishing them luck for the next stage of the process.

"The fact that we received so many applications just goes to show how proud people are of their towns," she said.

"When I launched this competition, I wanted to shine a light on our amazing towns all across the UK and the huge contribution they make to our national life."

Chairman of the independent panel, which will decide the winner, Hollyoaks writer Sir Phil Redmond said the response to the competition had been "overwhelming" and "quite literally from all four corners of the UK".