A HEREFORDSHIRE town has decided it won't hand out more than £1,000 to a Worcester company because it is "sick to death" of people wasting money.
Bromyard and Winslow Town Council had been asked by Worcester-based Nifty Communications to make a video documenting the launch of its revamp which includes the controversial backwards D.
As part of the Great Places to Visit fund, new signs and murals have been put up in the town thanks to £90,000 of government funding.
But because the £90,000 had already been spent, councillors had to decide if they would fund the video – suggested by Nifty Communications, which worked on the project – from its own budget.
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Documents show Nifty Communications has already been paid at least £4,800 and the council has agreed to pay a further £12,000 for 12 months of social media and website content.
But councillors were quick to criticise as they rejected the bid, with Barry Quantrill saying although the £1,250 was "good value", the project's consultants had been going against the town council's wishes by using the controversial backwards D for more than just merchandise.
Coun Gill Churchill also criticised the project team, including K4 Architects, Rose Regeneration, Foodscapes and Nifty Communications, for ploughing ahead with using the backwards D despite the council deciding it should only be used for merchandise.
It has since been used on bricks for the path down the side of the leisure centre, and on the wall of the Queen's Arms alley.
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She said Bromyard had already had three videos made and none have been very good, and she was not impressed by Nifty Communication's presentation.
"I'm not in favour of them, anybody, producing a video which nobody will watch," she said.
"It's another £1,250 wasted from the taxpayers of Bromyard. I don't pay Bromyard rates, and I will admit that I don't pay Bromyard rates, but I'm sick to death of people moaning at me that I've wasted money."
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Coun Mark Franklin said there was a success story to me told, and the backwards D have been successful, but Coun Quantrill said the video would be to promote the businesses behind the project.
Coun Fred Clark said Nifty Communications had already had money from the council via the Great Places to Visit fund, so he questioned why they wanted more, saying Nifty was coming back for "another bite of the cherry".
At a full council meeting on Monday, councillors narrowly voted to not commission the video.
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