The leadership of the new North Yorkshire Council which takes over from existing district councils from April has approved spending £394,000 on rebranding.
A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive heard councillors repeatedly congratulate officers for minimising the cost of swapping various logos and council names for that of a white rose and North Yorkshire Council on items ranging from staff badges to headed notepaper.
However, the meeting was told much of the county, borough and district councils’ branding would continue to be seen by the public for some time as the new branding would be phased in.
Executive members heard to cut costs the vast majority of assets carrying branding would only be replaced as they wore out, meaning bins, most signs and many buildings, bus stops, schools and vehicles may carry “retired brands” for many years to come.
The meeting was told the protracted rebranding move would enable the council explore every opportunity to reduce costs and ensure staff are not unnecessarily diverted onto rebranding activity instead of providing public services.
While the total cost is equal to 268 average council tax bills levied by the county council this year, the meeting was told the majority of the cost was unavoidable as it related to legal requirements for the council to be identifiable in numerous ways, such as on taxis and car parking signs.
Councillors heard the cost of rebranding to the public purse compared very well with other councils which have previously undergone local government reorganisation, with other authorities incurring costs of between £475,000 and £727,000.
Opposition councillors are yet to comment on the decision. When Wiltshire Council spent £475,000 on rebranding in 2011, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the “level of spending on logos showed shocking vanity” by the authority rather than keep council tax down.
The authority’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, told executive members: “We are a larger council, but we believe we can bring this in for the least cost that has been incurred for the rebranding of a council.”
The meeting was told while it was important the new council had fresh branding to establish a new identity, the authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, said it was also important that it came at “a minimal cost”, so the new brand had been created without employing external consultants.
Executive member for corporate services Councillor David Chance said the authority was pursuing a pragmatic approach to its branding and would have seen the same costs had a decision been made just to delete the word county from the council’s current logo
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