CITY councillors have voted to appoint the first town crier of Salisbury in a bid to bring community spirit.

The idea was rejected by the council in 2010 but on Monday members of the authority welcomed the opportunity to recruit for the position which is hoped will “celebrate the heritage of the city”.

The role is the brainchild of Councillor Jo Broom who said that town crier will “engender community spirit".

“I was very surprised, Salisbury being a historic city, that we have never had a town crier, we used to borrow one from Tisbury in years gone by so I thought it would be nice to have one of our own,” Cllr Broom said.

“We want somebody who is going to be an ambassador for the city, who will be approachable and a people person – someone who is proud of the city.”

The role will be a ceremonial position wit the winning candidate receiving expenses for their work.

It is proposed that the robes for the town crier will cost around £3,000 which will be bought through sponsorship from a local business.

This, however, raised concerns with councillors that sponsors names could be printed on the robes but Cllr Broom said that any recognition of sponsorship will be done discretely.

A competition will be launched next year to find the perfect person for the job, with a number of people already eager to enter and others have nominated who they would like to put forward.

“We will be asking people to send in themselves or nominate somebody and we will want to see video clips of themselves.”

A grand finale will then be held on the Guild Hall steps, with advice on what makes the perfect town crier coming from the National Guild of Town Criers.

“I am really pleased, I think it will be a real community event and it is going to get everybody talking,” Cllr Broom added.

It is expected that the first role of the town crier will be for the mayor making in May next year.