YORK has narrowly missed out on a place in the second round of a bid to be crowned European Youth Capital 2017.

The city which submitted its initial application in January has not managed to make it in to the top five qualifying cities.

Brussels, Cascais, Galway, Newcastle, Perugia and Varna were selected by an independent jury which included representatives from European Parliament, Microsoft and the Assembly of European Regions to compete for the title, which will be bestowed upon the winning city for a year.

Ethan Redmond, 14, a member of Youth Parliament for York, who had been a driving force behind the application, said that he was disappointed at the results.

He said: "I am obviously disappointed but it was a great experience to try and I think we have a lot to work on now and hopefully we can move forward and improve.

"The council were really supportive and I hope that they can take on our ideas and continue to work with us to improve them."

Ethan said that York's Youth Parliament will continue to work on plans to get more businesses involved in work experience as well as the idea of a local youth event in the city such as a carnival.

In a statement the European Youth Forum said that York had proved "strong competition" alongside Alcobendas in Spain, Kaunas in Lithuania and Vicenza in Italy.

A spokeswoman for the forum said: "We received a very strong field of applications for European Youth Capital 2017. Some cities were more detailed and convincing in their applications regarding the organisation and implementation of the year's objectives.

"This could be something that York could explore more in possible future applications to be European Youth Capital."

The winner of the title will be announced in November during a European Youth Forum's Council of Members meetings in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, which holds the European Youth Capital title for next year.