SOUTHAMPTON City Council spent more than £1.5 million on its bid to become UK City of Culture.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the authority confirmed that it had spent a total of £1,590,694.37 on the city's bid.

This included £992,225 on staffing and related expenditure, £68,159 on consultancy fees and £30,469 on other purchased services in support of the bid.

A total of £499,840 was also spent through a grant payment to the Southampton 2025 Trust.

READ MORE: Southampton City of Culture bid team reveals what next after losing out to Bradford

This levered £622,500 towards the bidding process with an extra £13.7m set to be committed if the bid had been won.

Leader of the council and former culture boss, Cllr Satvir Kaur said however that the bid was a "once in a generation opportunity to put Southampton on the map, bring our city together, cement pride in every community, create a catalyst for lasting change, and grow our local economy".

"While we were not successful in winning the title the bid process itself has been transformative for our city, which is why it was backed by all political parties, city institutions and organisations, community groups, local media, as well as businesses large and small not only in Southampton but the wider region.

"While of course winning would have unlocked an incredible programme, the SO25 campaign still has a lot to be proud of, reaching a national, regional and local audience of 1.15 billion people through press and media and delivered an advertising value for our city totalling £18.6 million.

Daily Echo: Cllr Satvir Kaur. Cllr Satvir Kaur. (Image: Freelancer)

"Also as a direct result we are seeing more cultural solutions to major issues from mental health, youth engagement to skills growth; more people wanting to visit Southampton that helps jobs and growth which we are currently building on; and because of the work done by Southampton, we are drawing in millions of pounds worth of investment that otherwise we would not have seen.”

The bid team was given a £125,000 grant from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for reaching the final four in the competition.

Longlisted entries also received a grant of £40,000 from central government to help prepare the final stages of their bid.

It comes as the Trust behind the bid has vowed that the competition was not the end and that it would deliver programmes, activities and campaigns to build on the work.

Bradford was announced as the winner of City of Culture 2025 at the end of May, beating Southampton and the other two areas; Durham and Wrexham, in the final round of voting.

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