HUNDREDS of pounds are being spent on replacement banners in one Herefordshire town after a major blunder.

New banners were ordered for installation on the A44 in Bromyard as part of the Herefordshire town's rebrand, which has cost tens of thousands of pounds

But councillors last year heard that an "administrative error" had seen the new banners ordered in the wrong size.

The resulting banners were manufactured at 50 per cent of the planned size "due to a misunderstanding over specifications used on the previous scheme", minutes from a meeting of the town council's finance committee revealed.

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"Unfortunately the sizing had gone unnoticed by all parties involved," documents said.

Two members of the public who attended the meeting also expressed their "extreme dislike" of the banner designs and urged that the town's old banners be reinstated, the minutes said.

A working group was set up to oversee the design submissions for the creation of the six new banners for the A44, with a meeting of the town's planning and economic development committee hearing in February that the group had considered two proposals in detail.

The committee resolved to accept the group's recommendation to appoint ID Creative Design, based in Malvern, and to approve a 50 per cent down payment of £600 to the company. 

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The designs will be considered by full council on March 6.

Bromyard underwent a major rebranding exercise in 2022, with new A44 banner designs chosen in July that year.

The designs were controversial at the time, with two councillors, Councillor Gill Churchill and Coun Liam Holman, saying they did not like any of the proposed designs, and Coun Clare Davies suggested that the current banners were kept instead.

They were part of a £90,000 Government-backed project, which saw changes in the town such as new signage, and artwork installations.

Included in the project was the controversial Bromyard backwards D, which was dropped from the town's name after a backlash.