IS GOING after city status a vanity project - or a savvy way to attract American businesses and show Reading's pride in itself?

Reading Borough Council voted on Tuesday to press ahead with the bid in time for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, with Labour and Tory councillors backing the plan but the Lib Dems against.

Council leader Jo Lovelock has promised that no council taxpayers' money will be used on the bid - except the time spent by officials drawing it up - and that funding will come from business sponsorship.

But Lib Dem deputy leader Cllr Daisy Benson said it would be money down the drain because the bid was "doomed to fail", adding: "This council should be about serving the people, not serving ourselves. Improving the lot of people who live in our town should be our top priority, not selling the town's soul to the highest bidder."

Cllr Lovelock accused her of "doing Reading down" and said: "We had a lot of support from business last time, many of them can see only too well that having Reading put on the map nationally and internationally in a more dramatic way by becoming a city will mean more inward investment and more jobs."

Lib Dem Cllr Warren Swaine said Reading would not be a city unless it made a "land grab" for Calcot, Woodley and Earley so its administrative borders match its urban area, but Tory Cllr Richard Willis said the town was already the "capital of the Thames Valley".

He said: "Businesses, and especially American businesses, do look at whether a place is a city or a town."

Reading made unsuccessful bids in 2000 and 2002, losing out to places like Sunderland, Brighton, Preston, Wolverhampton and Inverness. It looks to be a front-runner this time round, with competition coming from towns including Milton Keynes, Croydon and Perth.

A partnership board will be formed with the Olympian task of drawing up the 2012 bid.