A city council has been forced to sell a 120-year-old vintage number plate as it tries to generate more income.
Leeds City Council is planning on selling the U1 reg to claw back a £58.4m budget shortfall.
The local authority says they have been looking into different ways they can generate income.
It could fetch around £220,000 with a similar one currently for sale at that price.
The news follows a number of city councils declaring bankruptcy including Birmingham and Nottingham City Council last year.
The license plate was a gift exchanged by two former Lord Mayors of Leeds.
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It was used on the Lord Mayor’s civic vehicle 120 years ago.
According to records, the Motor Car Act was passed in 1903.
The act required all cars to have number plates.
Leeds resident, Rowland Winn, who was a motoring pioneer and founding member of the Automobile Association, bought the very first one issued in the city.
When his friend, Arthur Currer Briggs was elected Lord Mayor of Leeds that same year, Mr Winn gifted the U1 plate to him.
It has been used by Lord Mayors of Leeds ever since.
Mr Winn, one of the city’s first car dealers, was himself later elected Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1938-39.
But he retired from public life in the 1950s and was awarded the Freedom of the City in 1956, in recognition of his contribution to the city’s life and prosperity.
The council, who have been faced with bridging an estimated £58.4 million financial gap, have been exploring a number of innovative ways to generate income and balance the budget.
After consulting industry experts the council was informed the U1 plate could fetch a substantial amount.
All proceeds from any sale will go back into the council budget and help to protect front line services.
The final value would be subject to formal valuation and would depend on the final sale process.
Debra Coupar, Leeds City Council’s executive member for resources, said: “The sale of any assets is never something we take lightly and, in an ideal world, would not be something we’d wish to do.
”However, the financial pressures we are facing are simply so acute, we are being forced to look at all manner of options which we have never explored before.
“After consulting with experts, it’s clear that the sale of this number plate gives us a one-of-a-kind opportunity to secure a significant amount of funding, helping us protect vital services where we can whilst having no tangible impact on the people of Leeds.
“In the current circumstances, it’s an opportunity we can’t afford not to examine in more detail and our priority has to be to do whatever we can to balance our budget, meet the needs of residents and not risk being driven to the point of financial distress.”
Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Al Garthwaite, said: “It’s astonishing to think that the story of this historic number plate began with a kind, congratulatory gesture between two friends more than 120 years ago.
“I’m sure neither of those two former Lord Mayors of Leeds could have envisaged how valuable that gift would one day become.
”However, it is oddly fitting that the legacy of their friendship could be to potentially help their city when it is in the midst of such challenging circumstances all these years later.”
Last year, Birmingham City Council and Nottingham City Council declared bankruptcy.
Since 2018, six councils have effectively declared bankruptcy.
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