A CHANGE of direction has taken course in Dartmouth's bid for royal status.

Following a meeting of local organisations held last Thursday in the mayor's parlour, it was felt that a letter was not the right way forward and a different approach should be taken. The town's Business Improvement District team stepped down from formally leading the quest for royal status.

At the meeting – attended by members of the BID team and representatives from Dartmouth Museum, the Tourist Information Centre, the Dartmouth and Kingswear Society, Townstal Community Partnership, RNLI and the Flavel Centre Trust – attendees were shown a copy of a draft letter penned by the BID team that would be sent to support the application.

However, Robin Shiffner, Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, who was also present representing the RNLI, suggested that it was vital to write formally to the Lord-Lieutenant's office to ensure that he was informed about the application as soon as possible and to establish the correct protocol for going forward.

It was also agreed that the BID team should not be mentioned in the application, with the council taking the bid forward and the BID team taking a back seat.

It was decided the bid would be left in the hands of the mayor, Cllr Paul Allen, and deputy mayor, Cllr Rob Lyon, who with the assistance of Robin Schiffner would approach Sir Eric Dancer, Lord-Lieutenant of Devon's office, to arrange a meeting.

The council was due to discuss Dartmouth's royal bid at its meeting on Monday, but during the meeting it was announced that the issue had been withdrawn from the agenda due to the outcome of the previous meeting.

Paul Reach, chairman of the BID board, said: 'BID wants to assist, but it has taken a back seat; it's a community issue, not a business one, and it's not right for BID to be leading.

'We've handed it over with an offer of full support and have said we'll help with any funding that's needed.'

The original application for Royal Dartmouth was put forward by the BID team. It was of the opinion that the town's links to royalty dating back to the 13th century, as well as Dartmouth being the place where the Queen met her husband-to-be Prince Philip, leaves it in a unique position to bid for royal status. If successful it would join an elite club of just three other towns with the royal title: Leamington Spa, Tunbridge Wells and Wootton Bassett.

The meeting with the Lord-Lieutenant is set to take place in the next few weeks. Should he support the bid the application will move forward, eventually going before David Cameron and finally the Queen. But as Paul Reach noted: 'There's still a defined set of steps to go through.'