A list of 29 potential Towns and Cities - including Chorley - are in the running for the UK's first ever City of Culture.

The winning town or city of the national competition will be announced early next year and will host a number of important cultural events in 2013.

London and its boroughs were barred from entering the contest. Catch ITV1's Granada Reports, tonight from 6PM for a special report filmed at the Chorley FM studios this morning!

The locations announced today are: Aberdeen, Barnsley, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton & Hove, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, Chorley Council, City of Bath, Cornwall, County Durham, Derby, Derry City, Gloucester & Cheltenham, Hull, Ipswich & Haven Gateway, Leicester City, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Pennine Lancashire, Reading, Sheffield, 'The Countryside', Urban South Hampshire and Wakefield.