Newbury Town Council leader defends proposed logo change

THE leader of Newbury Town Council has hit back at accusations that it is wasting taxpayers time and money by considering changing its logo.
The council is looking at making minor changes to its current logo (above right) to make it look more like the one which is displayed on the town’s flag, which was approved last year.
Both the current logo and the one proposed (bottom right) are of Newbury Castle, which is said to have been beseiged by King Stephen in the 12th century civil war with the Empress Matilda.
However, the proposals, which involve changing the logo so that the flags on the castle fly in the opposite direction, have been ridiculed by some people who have posted comments on the NewburyToday forum describing it as a waste of money.
Council leader Julian Swift-Hook said: “The whole issue has been completely blown out of proportion. “We have a new member of staff at the council and one of the first things he spotted was that the town council logo and the one on the flag was not the same.
“He possesses graphic design skills and took it upon himself, in his own time, to knock up a design and asked us what we thought of it. That’s it.
“The level of interest and debate the issue has attracted is way out of proportion to how the idea came about in the first place but, because it is clearly something people feel passionate about, it is important we do not make any hasty decisions.”
Responding to questions about the associated costs of changing the logo, Mr Swift-Hook said: “I do not envisage any costs at all. We have a town council logo saved to a computer in jpeg format and any documentation sent out with our logo printed on is printed from that.
“I think some people think we have gone to a designer and said here’s £10,000, design us a logo, which is not the case at all.”