In the town centre, locals were split when talking with the .
One man, who has lived in Warrington for 40 years, said it was a “good place” but he would still “prefer it as a town”.
Anne Horan, from Great Sankey about two miles away, did not think Warrington was “almost a city”.
“It doesn’t feel like it deserves to be a city at the moment,” she said.
Her husband Noel, who moved to the town when he was 10 years old, said Warrington had gone “downhill” and “needs tidying up”.
“All they want to do with this town is spend money on frivolous roadworks like putting cycle lanes in and the place is overgrown with weeds. They’ve got the priorities all wrong,” he said.
Noel said he thought there was enough traffic in Warrington to make it a city but added: “To make it a city you need to spend a lot of money on it.”
Friends Pat and Dorothy have both lived in Warrington for 80 years and they said they would prefer it to stay as a town.
The acknowledged, however, how it was changing to become more like a city.
“They’re building on every part of Warrington, it’s getting bigger and bigger. I don’t think it will be long before it is,” said Pat, who lives in Houghton Green, which lies about 2.5 miles north-east of the town centre.
“They are building about 600 houses right behind me which was all open fields.”
Pat and Dorothy also mentioned changes to the town centre in recent years – including the recent closure of independent department store Hancock and Wood.
Pat said she wanted the town centre to go back to how it was in the 1960s, with lots of “individual and different” shops.
She complained that today “everything is the same”.
Housebuilding and the town centre were also on the mind of Sue Mitton.
She moved from Manchester to Warrington 50 years ago.
She said Burnham was right that the town was becoming more like a city due to the number of new homes.
Sue was critical of the town centre and said there were no longer any “proper shops”.
She said she did not think city status “would change a thing” for Warrington.
“It’s still horrible,” she said.