Dartmouth could be turned in to a 'virtual town' as the Queen of Shops Mary Portas is called in with a £100,000 internet answer to the town's ailing economy.

Mary Portas has been handed £1m by planning minister Greg Clark to create high street plans to revitalise local economies.

And Dartmouth has put in a bid for a £100,000 share of the cash to turn it into a world wide web hotspot and sell the whole town through the internet.

The bid for Portas Pilot Town status is the brainchild of the newly-formed Dartmouth Business Forum, which launched less than three weeks ago.

The forum members had just 10 days to put together the bid and managed to get it in just hours ahead of Friday before last's deadline.

Dartmouth is now one of 350 towns across the county fighting to become one of the 10 communities which will eventually be awarded £100,000 each.

The forum also had to put together a five-minute YouTube video detailing why it needs the money as part of the bidding procedure.

Forum chairman Paul Reach said the decision over who gets the cash will be made next month.

'It is all about the regeneration of the town,' he said. 'Mary Portas's argument has been that the internet is killing towns because people are not going to town centres to shop.

'We are saying why not work with the internet and set up what would be a virtual town.'

He said the guild's plans included:

– Installing free Wi Fi throughout the town.

– Selling the town centre as a commercial entity through the internet.

– Set up a 'virtual precinct' with the town centre where people can access the internet and surf Dartmouth.

– Set up special quick response barcodes on the front of shops and town maps so people can get instant access to business websites and satnav information on how to get there.

The forum has grown out of the chamber of trade, which collapsed last year after all its senior officers quit.

The new line-up of officers is Mr Reach; Mark Simpson, in charge of membership; finance officer Michael Ghersie; and secretary and legal eagle Owen Hill.

The Mary Portas bid is the group's first step in finding ways to revitalise Dartmouth's economy.

The forum is also looking at preparing a bid for cash from the £24m-strong Federation of Small Businesses Coastal Community Fund to spend on innovative ways of linking the Townstal area – including the new 400 homes due to be built at West Dartmouth – with the lower town.

Mr Reach said: 'We are looking at mass transit solutions to solve this problem with the bonus that this would be a tourist attraction, like many of the funicular railways are around our coast.

'If you have any ideas on what the solution may be, with no boundaries on your thinking, please let us know through the forum group on www. lovedartmouth.com.'

The Portas grant scheme is part of the Government's 'Portas-plus' response to her review, which includes a raft of new incentives, funding schemes and other measures in a bid to rejuvenate rundown high streets.

Mr Reach said the Portas bid was designed to spell out the problems facing Dartmouth and put forward a plan help solve them.

He added he understood – from the producer of Bottom Line, Mary Portas's programme about the revival of the clothing industry in Middleton, Lancashire – she will view every video personally. He said: 'So please support this initiative and help us win this bid.

'There are 350 towns bidding for this funding so, if you are a gambler our chances are about 30 to 1. I think that is worth a fiver at your local bookie.'