CONSERVATIVES have announced their first act in charge of county hall – scrapping the council’s ‘Labour rose’ logo.

The Tories have gained control of Lancashire County Council for the first time in 28 years.

And their first symbolic act is to scrap the logo which replaced the traditional Lancashire Tudor rose.

The Tories said the redesigned 2002 emblem was virtually the same as the national Labour Party’s flower.

They plan to revert to a design similar to the original Tudor rose.

Outgoing Labour leader Hazel Harding said the move was ‘taking the council back 10 years’.

Conservative chiefs said the emblem would be phased it out so taxpayers’ money was not wasted.

Geoff Driver, the new county council leader, said: “We and a lot of people feel that the rose that was put into the logo a few years ago is not the Tudor rose of Lancashire.

"It is the Labour rose. It will soon be gone but we will not spend a fortune to change it everywhere, just on things like stationery and the website.

“Unlike Labour, we do not think the people of Lancashire care about logos, but they do care about our services.”

The current logo, seen on county council buildings across Lancashire, was brought in by bosses after the last one, which incorporated the Tudor rose, was deemed out of date.

But it is due to be scrapped after County Coun Driver is formally takes over on June 25.

However, Hazel Harding, who was ousted as leader and also lost her Rossendale North seat last week, denied the 2002 logo mirrored Labour’s rose.

She said: “The Tudor rose is on all sorts of other things like double glazing company logos and we couldn’t copyright it but we can with the current one.

“It was not about me or the Labour party. It was about changing the image of the council.

"If County Coun Driver wants to take it back 10 years he can do it.”