Is £3m up your street? The hunt is on for first UK ‘town of culture’

The prize is £3m in cash – along with an invaluable boost of self-esteem. From next week, the race to become the UK’s first town of ­culture begins in earnest.

So far places as varied as Malmesbury, Grimsby, Enniskillen, Ross-on-Wye and Telford are ­limbering up for the challenge.

The burghers of interested towns have until 31 March to make their intentions known ahead of a process that has been modelled on the successful city of culture scheme. Starting in 2013, this original contest most recently spotlit Bradford and now brings with it the lure of £10m in guaranteed investment.

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, extended a similar opportunity to towns in October, saying she hoped the new competition would “foster a sense of local pride”.

Too many towns had been ­“written out of the national story”, Nandy said.

An independent panel of judges – chaired by screenwriter and TV producer Phil Redmond, a veteran of the city scheme – will award the first title to a town in 2028. It will be looking for signs of a strong local identity and arts and heritage offering.

Candidates already known to be in the running include Market Harborough in Leicestershire, Bilston in the West Midlands, Crewe in Cheshire and Tenterden in Kent. Vying for the prize within Hertfordshire alone will be Hemel Hempstead, Tring, Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.

Shropshire will also be setting neighbours against each other, with seven towns registering interest to date. The question is whether it should go to a town with an existing wealth of culture – such as Margate, home of Tracey Emin and the £17.5m Turner Contemporary art gallery – or somewhere, as Nandy suggests, that has been long overlooked.

Photograph by Alamy