People across Brighton and Hove are celebrating winning city status.

Home Office minister Mike O'Brien announced yesterday the Queen was bestowing the honour on Brighton and Hove, Wolverhampton and Inverness to mark the millennium.

It is a triumph for the unconventional Place To Be campaign, which drew together people from all sectors of the community to champion our bid, raised thousands of pounds in sponsorship and sparked off hundreds of events and projects.

We came up trumps against fierce and sometimes dirty competition from 38 other towns around the country.

City status will be officially conferred on Brighton and Hove by a Letters Patent, a formal document signed by the Queen, which will be presented to Brighton and Hove Council. It is not yet known who will hand over the Royal Charter.

Our win and the end of the Place To Be campaign will be celebrated in style at a massive party on New Year's Eve at the Old Steine in Brighton.

City status is a rare mark of distinction, only 14 towns received the honour in the 20th Century. Our bid, delivered to the Home Office by bicycle last year, aimed to show we would be a different kind of city, rich in the arts and culture.

Thrilled leaders in Brighton and Hove are now looking at how the win could be used to boost the reputation of the new city around the world, regenerate run-down areas and create new jobs and investment.

The council plans to use the kudos surrounding the title to attract more jobs for its young, skilled but relatively under-employed workforce.

The new city has a young population - 60 per cent is under 44 and there is a higher than average number in the economically important 25-to-34 age group (17 per cent).

The win means thousands of pounds worth of free publicity around the world which will be harnessed to talk up everything good about Brighton and Hove.

Tourism chiefs plan to market Brighton and Hove as the perfect location for a city break and conferences and hundreds of businesses will use the win in their marketing.

Simon Fanshawe, chairman of the Place To Be campaign, said he had been overwhelmed by the support he was given by the public when the news broke yesterday.

He said: "I feel like it is the beginning of something, another chapter in our history. People have so much confidence and energy and I feel sure it will make Brighton and Hove an even more exciting place.

"We have the opportunity to point out that Brighton and Hove has been chosen as a place with a new economy, combined with quality of life and equal opportunities. It is going to be really valuable for us. It underlines the fact we are a city of the future."