DUNFERMLINE is going for city status and it's also part of a joint application to become the UK City of Culture in 2025.

For the first time in the competition, groups of towns or areas can bid for the title and Fife is partnering with Angus, Dundee and Perth & Kinross councils for a 'Tay Cities Region' entry.

Paul Vaughan, head of the communities and neighbourhoods service at Fife Council, said a joint expression of interest was submitted in July.

He told councillors: "We've made it quite clear that this has to be the whole of Fife and it shouldn't just be what's maybe considered to be the Tay Cities deal area.

"From a geographical perspective, that's going to stretch all the way to the north of Perthshire, to the far east of Angus and as far west as Kincardine so it's going to be a huge geographical area.

"But we were very clear we weren't just sticking to the Tay deal area which would predominantly be the north-east of Fife.

"This needs to apply right across the whole of Fife if we're successful."

Awarded every four years, the current City of Culture is Coventry and previous winners include Derry/Londonderry in 2013 and Hull in 2017.

Council co-leader David Ross said: "This is a very exciting proposal. Whether we're ultimately successful, there will be great benefits coming out of the preparatory work as well and it's very much set in the context of recovery from the pandemic.

"I've certainly made it clear that we think this should be the whole of Fife; places like Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and other areas have a lot to offer and that's been welcomed by the other local authorities."

He added: "This is one of the very positive spin-offs of our participation in the city regions deal. I don't think we would have had this level of close working without that.

"Ultimately, there would be great benefits for Fife in terms of culture, tourism and business as a whole."

There have been 20 expressions of interest across the UK, including Stirling and the 'Borderlands', Cornwall, Bradford and Lancashire.

The UK Government will make funding available for the preparation of the final bid.

Mr Vaughan added: "We expect to find out at the end of the month whether Fife has been long-listed.

"If we are, there's further work that will need to be done between then and the submission date for the bid document in January."

He said preparatory work and consultation was taking place already with cultural trusts and organisations across the four local authority areas.