Hastings City?

Hastings is one of several towns in Sussex which could compete for the right to become a city. The Prime Minister said this week that he wanted to see more cities across the UK and a number of Sussex towns have already thrown their hats into the ring.

Council leaders from Worthing, Crawley and Eastbourne have all come out and said they would welcome the elevation to city status.

Hastings Borough Council leader Peter Pragnell said he and his colleagues would be looking into the benefits of becoming a city.

He said: "If it is worth it, we will go for it."

The scramble to become a city started after comments made by the Prime Minister at a Newspaper Society event at Westminster.

He said: "We have 50 cities in England and we have 66 in the United Kingdom as a whole.

"I look forward over the next few years to many towns in our country becoming cities as we add to the number of cities in the UK."

Sussex already has two cities - Chichester and Brighton and Hove, but with a growing population the belief is the region could accommodate another.

And where better?