I CARE as much as anyone about the name and fame of Basingstoke, but I am unenthusiastic about recent suggestions that the town could, or should, seek city status.

I cannot see how this would promote our interests or improve our prospects. To claim city status would surely be an act of meaningless self-aggrandisement.

Perhaps a few people involved in civic administration might feel more important if we became a city but I oppose the idea. Despite dramatic changes over the last 40 years, Basingstoke is an historic town. Let us remain a town.

BY NOW, the borough council is likely to have reappointed its chief executive and abandoned the idea of creating a "strategic management board".

This is good news. Chief executive Gordon Holdcroft is doing a good job.

Moreover, the borough needs one person at its head. No company I have heard of with a turnover the size of the borough's would dream of operating without someone in the driving seat.

I HAVE recently been asking senior management of some of the international companies which have come to Basingstoke during the last 30 years if they would make the same decision today.

So far, no one has replied "Yes" unequivocally. They say that the climate for conducting business in the UK is far less attractive. They refer to the increasing burden of bureaucracy, higher non-wage costs, higher taxes and greater skills shortages.