A swirly tree on a blazing orange background is not always described as "subtle" but a national ranking of all 399 council logos has found Swindon's to be one of the best.

Journalist Robin Wilde conducted what he called "a totally objective ranking of every UK local authority logo" published on Medium.com

And the borough council's logo we're all so familiar with from bins around the borough, and council tax demands, is pretty well-placed.

Mr Wilde put it in position 82. which means, out of 3099, Swindon's logo just about sneaks into the top 20 per cent.

Possibly having looked at the black and white version of the logo, Mr Wilde wrote: "Good work on this one — subtle enough to not make me cringe, obvious enough to stand on its own."

That assessment met with the approval; of the borough council leader, David Renard, who said: "The words 'subtle but stands out’ is a great description for Swindon as well as its logo.

"I’m always keen for Swindon to be ranked in the top 20 per cent of councils on any measure so I'm delighted that we achieve that on this fun ranking too.”

It would be wrong to suggest that Coun Renard, or anyone at Euclid Street, took pleasure in absolutely trouncing neighbouring councils, but trounce them it does.

Wiltshire Council's simple wordmark in two shades of green with a curvy underlining is put in position 254, and Mr Wilde is not complimentary: "I was going to type a short review of this but I fell asleep trying."

Also down in the also-rans was Gloucestershire County Council's equally simple effort of a crest and wordmark in blue. The 'totally objective' assessment is: "Dull crest, dull font, livened up by the speed lines they’ve tried to draw under the name. Makes the council go faster."

Oxfordshire County Council fares a little better at 121 but its circular heraldic device lets it down: "a subtle circle device is probably the best way to bring the crest into the modern era. It’s still too complicated, though.

Some of Swindon's other neighbours get some real criticism. Although Mr Wilde says nice things about Cotswold District Council's "cartoon fish", it is down in 303, the Vale of the White Horse is in position 351 and Bath & North East Somerset gets a real telling off in position 383: "If you’re going to create your logo at 4.55pm on a Friday, at least do it with some dignity, and not a colour scheme devised by glancing at a nearby globe. This council area contains both a beautiful spa town and mining heritage, and you really couldn’t think of anything?"

The full assessment is available at: robin-cg.medium.com/a-totally-objective-ranking-of-every-uk-local-authority-logo-b76e8f7efd5a