Gloucester has ditched its planned bid to become the next UK City of Culture, just weeks after announcing it would be competing.

Gloucester City Council and Gloucester Cultural Trust have revealed they will not be submitting an Expression of Interest for the title, despite councillor Steve Morgan saying the city was "in a strong position to make a winning bid".

With groups of towns able to join forces for the 2025 title, Gloucester was set to lead the Gloucestershire bid which promised "a year-long series of events, festivals, workshops and artist collaborations taking place in venues right across the county".

But the organisations said that instead they will "be focusing efforts on the city's cultural recovery".

"While the City of Culture title undoubtedly brings new opportunities and Gloucester was proposing a truly ambitious cross-county approach we have decided on reflection to concentrate our resources on delivering the city's cultural recovery and existing projects that we are committed to, whilst supporting the fantastic work that has been done to grow Gloucester's creative communities," a joint statement read.

"The bid process requires significant resources and it has been decided to focus that energy and investment into the recovery of the city following the challenges of the pandemic.

"However, the conversations which have taken place around creative collaboration across

the county are set to continue as will the work to invest in local artists, performers and producers to nurture our emerging talents.

"We are proud to already have fantastic cultural events and activities in the city which will be further boosted by the regeneration of Kings Square into a world class events space and the launching of Jolt artist studios and entrepreneurial hub later this year.

"We'd like to thank all those partners and supporters who have come together to offer their support and hope to be able to harness that enthusiasm as we continue to develop the cultural scene and recovery in Gloucester."

The winning bid for the 2025 title is due to be announced in December.