MINEHEAD has found itself embroiled in a bizarre battle of the brands.

Earlier this month, Minehead Coastal Communities Team, which is working with West Somerset Council and design agency RH Partners, unveiled a new image for Minehead which was part of a wider campaign to revitalise the resort, raise its profile and attract more visitors.

The new logo, which had been selected as the clear favourite during consultation exercises, featured the tagline ‘Discover Hidden Treasure’ and described the area as ‘Minehead Bay’.

However, the brand has proved somewhat contentious and now a new community group is publicising a rival logo which seems to be proving popular.

The new design by Scott Huish changes the name back to Minehead, has a blue, yellow and green lines to symbolise the sea, beach and North Hill and uses the tagline ‘Simply Moor to Sea’ suggested by Exmoor Food Festival organiser Elke Winzer.

The new logo has gained traction online, with a poll on social media suggesting 97 per cent of more than 500 voters are in favour of the ‘Simply Moor To Sea’ branding.

Beresford Mansley, who set up the Minehead Community Group on Facebook, which has gathered 2,400 members in seven weeks, has written to the Coastal Communities Team asking them to reconsider.

“People have a lot of concerns about renaming Minehead as Minehead Bay and the Discover Hidden Treasure tagline. Our design is more representative of Minehead and is proving more popular; even we have been surprised by how strong the reaction has been,” Mr Mansley said.

Committee member Michael Burke added: “You can’t just rename the place just like that - Minehead is even in the Domesday book.”

However, the Coastal Communities Team is sticking to its guns and has ruled out a second round of consultation featuring the rival logo.

Cllr Roger Thomas, who chairs the Coastal Communities Team, said: “We carried out extensive consultation where a 44 per cent majority were in favour of the chosen brand.

“The choice that was clearly preferred by the majority has now been unanimously agreed by the CCT as the key stakeholder group. We are sticking with the chosen brand which we feel reflects the spirit of Minehead and will be used on key marketing tools and all future campaigns to market Minehead.

“The next phase will be to develop the advertising and the dedicated website to attract visitors to Minehead.”