A BULL could soon be given the boot from a town's crest after councillors decided it was too camp!

Members of Longridge Town Council have already decided to change the design on a badge for local community groups.

Now they seem set to apply for permission to redesign the whole crest in a bid to make the bull butcher.

Under centuries-old law, a town's crest or coat of arms -- which features a white bull with wavy horns and a lifted right hoof -- can only be used by the people it was patented too.

So the town council decided to come up with a badge which could be used by groups like the band, and air cadets.

At a meeting on Wednesday, councillors were told the town's band, which had requested using the new badge, still didn't like the new bull, which is black and has straighter horns.

Coun Frank Priest said: "I can see where they are coming from. It is camp. It looks better than it did but I still don't think it is a bull. It's just too effeminate.

"I've never noticed it on the crest before, but I think the badge brought it to prominence because the bull is the main feature.

"I think if we can, we should look at the bull on the crest too. It's just odd.

"People are comparing it to a pantomime horse."

Fellow councillor Margaret Brown added: "It's not right and now I look at the crest, I can see it's not right there too!"

Thomas Woodcock, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, holds the historic government-appointed position of designing new crests and badges for people north of the River Trent.

He said: "The crest first came about in April 1954 for Longridge Urban District Council.

"It was re-assigned to Longridge Town Council in 1974 after local government reorganisation.

"The rules state it includes a bull, but there is nothing stopping the council petitioning me for the bull to be altered. In effect, that is what happened with the badge.

"The badge takes elements of the crest and creates something other people can use. When we presented them with the first design, they were concerned it was too effeminate."

He added that nobody could be sure why crests contain the elements they do, but it is thought in Longridge that the bull represented local agriculture.

But Mr Woodcock said: "It could just as easily be because the mayor at the time liked bulls."