It was a decision that had Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow and heck the whole of Scotland waiting on with baited breath.

Would Paisley be victorious in its bid to become the 2021 UK City of Culture?

After two years of passionate campaigning – hosting music events, dances, spoken word nights and showing all that Paisley had to offer, on Thursday night sadly our final Scottish contender lost out to Coventry.

As there has never before been a Scottish City of Culture winner, it would have been wonderful to have some good news to revel in.

Of course, Paisley is no city, but as the competition is also open to large towns and urban areas, the town made history simply by becoming the first to make it to the shortlist.

But alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Despite losing out, the team behind the Paisley bid can feel proud they gave it their all and know that alongside Swansea, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland, they lost out to a worthy winner in Coventry.

But losing out is not all bad news.

The momentum, enthusiasm and passion generated in Paisley, which spread out and brought other Scottish communities into the fold, will bring so many positives.

We saw it earlier this year when the city of Perth failed to make the shortlist in the culture bid.

Aside from the obvious blow of losing out, they are still set to benefit from an ambitious city-wide cultural development by way of regenerating Perth Theatre and Perth City Hall, as well as the refurbishment of Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Whilst the city’s initial bid attracted a degree of negativity over whether it should have even applied, by putting themselves forward a conversation was generated on a large scale.

Since then, a great deal of positivity has emerged at what they are set to gain in the next four years.

There is no reason Paisley can’t similarly harness this enthusiasm and passion.

When so much time and energy has been invested into creating a strong sense of community, opportunities and a clear picture of what their future might look like. That all doesn’t go away just because their name wasn’t featured on a piece of paper.

Paisley has completed the hard bit by drumming up support from the community.

After their takeover at Holyrood, gaining the high profile backing of Paolo Nutini and featuring in Morgan Spence’s stop-motion animation LEGO film, we’ve already seen just what is possible.

The history of Paisley, with its reputation as an international textile producer recognised for design, innovation, activism, poetry and song, is a proud one.

There is no reason why Paisley can’t now weave a strong future promoting it’s rich cultural scene inclusive of all, UK City of Culture or not.