SWINDON is unlikely to become a city in the near future.

A competition has been launched for towns to gain city status as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year, but borough leaders are not sold on the idea of making a bid for the royal charter.

The council failed when similar opportunities arose in 1999 and 2002 and this time borough leader David Renard said the fact Swindon is a town does not put off investors and businesses.

He added: "If there were tangible evidence to suggest applying for and gaining city status would benefit Swindon, we would consider it.”

Here's what you told us on the matter on Facebook...

ALEXANDRA MANCARI: "So why are other towns applying if there is no ‘tangible’ reason to do so? This implies that our towns leaders don’t feel that the Swindon has the ‘distinct identity or sense of community’ to even be successful. What a sorry situation."

JENN WOLFIE: "Work to improve the town is more important than trying to get city status. Maybe Swindon would benefit from a university? Some better shops, or at least shops which are not empty. Fewer cafes and more other shops. Reinstate the canal perhaps to bring in more tourists? What is our town's niche? What makes it special that people would want to come and spend money in Swindon?"

WENDY AITKEN: "Frankly we're not up to scratch, need a lot of work done, and I'm happy enough in a town."

JANET SHAW: "It has the worst shopping area ever. It’s a dump! We need investment to get the shops up and running again."

RICHARD HOWROYD: "I thought you needed a car factory to be a city.? Careless to lose one. This council struggles to run a town let alone a city. People need to turn out and vote at the next election and get rid before they do more damage."

JOE THOMAS: "I bet all the people who are constantly moaning about SBC are the same ones who didn’t bother to vote at the last election."

DIOGO COSTA: "Cities require paved streets and works finished before its own jubilee. Swindon can't even keep its grass shorter than 30cm..."

ANDREW LITTLE: "Obviously David Renard and co are too embarrassed to put it forward for city status because of the state of the place."

GRAHAM STOBBS: "Same old moaners about Swindon. No shops? Actually we have the Designer Outlet – not all towns have one of them. Potholes – yes every town has them also. Football has nothing to do with us being a city. Now we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Instead of moaning why don't you get out there and do something about it? Build it up rather than bring it down."

DANNY BELLOMUSTO: "Fix the roads first. Get town centre back up and running. Then maybe, just maybe, look into that another time."

MARY GLADMAN: "First we need a decent council with some vision for what Swindon could be and the will to put the vision into action. That will do more for the town than city status."

CAROL GLIDEWELL: Swindon a city? More like a grotty town with nothing left except too many houses built and roads no longer able to cope – oh, and roadworks round every corner."

DEBBIE SPINDLER: "Are you having a laugh? Not even in the same league as Bristol or Bath."

ANGELA ATKINSON: While Swindon undoubtedly has its problems it's without doubt not anywhere near as bad as the naysayers make out. Quite the opposite. In #secretswindon I made up, for the craic, an alternative, tongue-in-cheek Swindon motto. I put it into Latin. But it went along the lines of: 'Swindon: it's not as bad as you think'. And it's not. And in fact it's a great deal better – for all its flaws. Show me the perfect urban conurbation. Oh wait – there isn't one.

LIAM SHORTRIDGE: "When we moved to Swindon in 1997 I thought I’d see what’s occurring in the tourist information centre. All the literature was about how Swindon was perfectly located to access everywhere else."

CHRIS MORTON: "I don't know why people don't want it to be a city. It was the same story when they wanted to put a university up by the hospital. There's nothing cultural, educational or touristy in Swindon because people won't let it happen."