BRITONS will be hanging out the bunting this weekend, with councils in England and Wales receiving nearly 9,500 road closure applications to hold street parties to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The Local Government Association said the figure dwarfed the 5,500 applications for last year's royal wedding and showed the tradition had been "well and truly resurrected".

Coupled with the tens of thousands of other events planned in gardens, parks, pubs, village greens, care homes, schools, cul-de-sacs and town squares, the scale of national celebration looks set to surpass anything experienced for decades.

Many local authorities have waived road closure fees, offered cash grants and given out party packs to ensure celebrations go off with a bang.

The breakdown in figures shows a remarkably similar distribution to that of last year's festivities, with residents in the Home Counties appearing the most patriotic.

Hertfordshire leads by a long shot with 451 applications for street parties, followed by Surrey with 419, Hampshire with 316 and Kent with 306.

London, with nearly 2,000 applications, is due to have the most street celebrations of any city, followed by Bristol with 91 applications, Leeds with 72 and Birmingham with 71, which also proved to be popular party spots last year.

Figures for Scottish cities show that those north of the border are less keen to mark the milestone than their neighbours.

Edinburgh has had just 15 applications, Glasgow City Council has received seven and Aberdeen one, according to The Scotsman newspaper.

Scottish Borders Council has had the most applications, 55, after it arranged to distribute £40,000 in grants to community groups organising Jubilee events, the paper said.