YORK has missed out on millions of pounds of prize money in a European competition for innovation in cities.

The city had been shortlisted for a Bloomberg Philosophies Mayor's Challenge - run by millionaire former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg.

But when the winners were announced on Wednesday, York was not among them. York had been one of only five UK cities in the 21-strong shortlist.

The top prize of €5 million went to Barcelona to help fund its project to create a digital and community ‘trust network’ for each of its at-risk elderly residents.

Three other winning cities received €1 million, including Kirklees which won for its "Kirklees Shares" to encourage public sector organisations, businesses, charities and individuals to share equipment, space, skills and even people's time.

Council leader James Alexander has said: “It is testament to York that it was one of only 21 cities out of 155 across Europe to make it to the final round of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge Competition.

"This helps to illustrate the level of innovative partnership work that is currently being undertaken in the city.

"Whilst it is unfortunate that York was not selected as one of the final five cities, we’re pleased that Kirklees is one of the winners and that this will continue to benefit our region. The support and access to top-quality expertise provided throughout the competition has been invaluable to York and we will continue to develop and enhance our project proposal and look at new ways in which we can bring it to fruition.”

York’s entry was a proposal to revolutionise the way residents, businesses and others can propose new ideas to solve city problems, "providing a more intelligent way to acquire or develop the best solutions".

After the shortlist as announced in April, staff from York council were part of the two-day Bloomberg "ideas camp" in Berlin, run to allow competitors from the 21 cities to talk about their entries and refine their proposals.