Council bosses in Birmingham were miles out when choosing a photo of their city... over 4,000 miles out.

Birmingham City Council has admitted a gaffe which led to them accidentally printing 720,000 leaflets showing a skyline photo of the wrong - Birmingham its namesake in the US. The embarrassing cock-up was spotted by a local but at first the council tried to deny they'd made a mistake.

Jon Cooper, 37, said: "I'm a regular visitor to the States, so when I saw the picture I instantly knew that it was the US city, not ours.  I can't believe no one at the town hall noticed. Who is checking this stuff?"

Birmingham City Council spent £16,000 on the pamphlets - intended to congratulate residents on meeting its recycling targets.  But underneath the heading "Thank You, Birmingham!" is a photograph in which local landmarks such as the BT Tower, the Rotunda and the Selfridges building are all missing.

Instead, the skyline shows the South Trust Tower, the AT&T building and Regions Harbert Plaza - all from Alabama in America's deep south.  At first, the council released a bizarre statement saying: "It was not a mistake - it is a generic skyline which is intended to symbolise an urban area."

But later a spokesman at the council admitted the error: "We accept that the wrong photo was used - but the text is correct, which is the main thing."

I guess they'll be recycled sooner than thought...

Come and visit our world famous Bull Ring.

The original was here.