A logo depicting mountains that look “more like boomerangs” had some town councillors wondering whether the Penrith in question could be mistaken for its Australian counterpart.
Town councillors were asked to consider a branding proposal which had come from the Penrith Town Working Group.
Deputy town clerk Ros Richardson said that branding had been talked about for a long time by the group.
Although it was agreed that Penrith did not have a unique selling point — as it meant many different things to many different people — it was thought that a single visual to represent Penrith should be developed to be able to carry individual headings.
“The colours need work. Everybody on that group knew that they wanted Penrith’s street scheme and they wanted the fells.
“They didn’t want it to look like the Beacon. They wanted it to look like Penrith next to the Lake District. It needs a bit of work potentially, but that was a grassroots person on the group who helped design that and he can work on that.”
Town councillor Mike Shepherd said: “I asked Mrs Shepherd what she thought she was looking at there and, like me, she said: ‘boomerangs’. Given there is a Penrith in New South Wales we have to be careful to avoid confusion.”
He added that he disagrees with the person who thinks that it shouldn’t be the Beacon for a generic graphic of Penrith.
“It is disingenuous to suggest that Penrith is that near to the Lake District,” said Mr Shepherd.
Ron Kenyon said: “The Beacon is very much our hill. Millions of people who come up the motorway see the Beacon. That’s our USP.”
After it was suggested that an amendment could be made to the recommendation which was before councillors, town clerk Viv Tunnadine said: “It’s an officer’s report, it’s not a motion.
“We don’t do amendments to officers’ reports. So what we can say there is that at this point in time you are not minded to approve it, but you are minded for us to submit some suggestions,” said Mrs Tunnadine.
The logo will be brought back to full council as soon as the next drafts are ready.
