Market Drayton loses meerkats race

Market Drayton has lost out to "Meerkat Harborough" in the race to be twinned with the home village of the famous meerkat character who fronts television adverts.

The Shropshire town lost out to Leicestershire's Market Harborough in an online vote organised by bosses at price comparison company Compare the Market.

Market Harborough grabbed about 60 per cent of the vote on Facebook and Twitter after going up against "Meerkat Drayton", "Weston-Super-Meer", "Windermeer" and "Downham Meerkat".

The winning town will be twinned with Meerkovo - dubbed the long-suffering Russian meerkat village, which is home to Aleksandr Orlov, the aristocratic meerkat character who fronts the adverts.

By failing to win, Market Drayton has also missed out on a £5,000 prize laid on by organisers for community projects.

The town's chamber of trade urged people to back the vote in the hope a victory would raise the town's profile and pave the way for spin-off economic benefits.

Thousands of votes were cast in the poll by visitors to a Facebook page and Twitter feed.

On his Facebook page today, character Aleksandr congratulated the winning town and is pictured beside a Meerkovo road sign which says the village has been twinned with "Meerkat Harborough".