Tewkesbury Borough Council has voted to drop its planned name change due to English devolution plans which may see it merged with other authorities in Gloucestershire.
Tewkesbury Borough Council voted last September to rebrand itself as North Gloucestershire Borough Council.
The move was taken by councillors as they felt the name better represented the whole borough they serve.
However, council leaders decided in December to postpone the launch of the authority’s name change until March 2025 as they awaited what the Government would say about proposals which could see local government reorganised across the country.
But the English Devolution white paper, published on December 19, proposes creating more unitary councils which, in Gloucestershire, means district councils such as Tewkesbury would be merged with the County Council.
And as such, Tewkesbury Borough Council has decided not to proceed with the rebrand.
Council leader Richard Stanley (LD, Cleeve West) told last night’s (January 29) meeting it would have been remiss of them to continue ahead with the name change.
The authority had set aside £10,000 for the name change and he thanked council officers for being so frugal as the only costs incurred to date were £100 for the website domain name.
He also told the meeting how staff worked in their own time to design the proposed logo for the rebrand.
“We were a council that was planning for change and then the Government had ideas about what that change might be,” he said.
“We did two consultations, an initial consultation around whether the name represented people and then the following consultation with the public which was our biggest ever response.
“Then in stark contrast, from something relatively small of changing a name we’ve now got the entire reorganisation of our council with zero public consultation, thus far as imposed by the Government.
“There’s an irony there, I’m sure.
“We will stick with Tewkesbury Borough Council which, in some ways, is a victory for some.
“But a bit of a pyrrhic victory because our council is going.”
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of cancelling the name.