A NEW city council logo set to cost at least £24,000 has been dubbed a "needless waste of money" by a taxpayer who was consulted on it beforehand.

A group of residents sitting on the city council's citizens panel' got to see numerous attempts at a new logo before the final version was revealed.

They were told that one of the reasons for the change was because the city council wanted to identify itself more clearly from the county council.

Paul Curtis was shocked when the Worcester News reported last week how the council was going to go ahead with a new green logo in January.

Mr Curtis, of Laxton Avenue, St John's, was one of 10 people on the panel - and claims many of them were against the change.

"A number of the panel felt there was nothing wrong with the present logo and any additional spending on this sort of frippery was just another needless waste of money," said the 65-year-old.

"I believe we have here another council department with little to do except to find ways of inflating their own importance and wasting money."

The exact cost of the re-branding exercise has yet to be determined.

A spokesman for the city council said: "We can never please everyone, but the amount we are spending on the rebrand is peanuts.

"We could have spend hundreds of thousands, but we've managed to do it in-house. I doubt the cost will go much over £24,000. We started running down things like the stationery stock some time ago."

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