Council images put on hold

Plans for reviewing the corporate images of up to 11 county councils have been put on hold as a result of Environment Secretary John Gummer’s delay in granting them unitary status.

Unitary status was scheduled for April 1997 for Torbay, Southend, Nottingham, Plymouth and Hereford, and the Berkshire councils of Wokingham, Windsor & Maidenhead, Slough, Newbury and Bracknell Forest (DW 6 October 1995).

The Department of the Environment claims the practicalities for organising the changes could not be met within the timescale and it would be less costly to stagger the changes over two years instead of one.

Plymouth Council had already agreed to make some changes in its marque and possibly name, and was about to approach design consultancies. “Now there is not a lot of point in doing anything,” says a council spokesman. The project has been put on hold until next year when shadow elections are expected, with unitary status likely to be granted in April 1998.

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