Originally Posted by AndyBrew
you will need to get the logo re-illustrated by somebody depending on its complexity etc. wil either be quick/cheap job or long/expensive one

True
A vector image is a description of lines, angles and shapes, and where they are on the page. This allows them to be up and downscaled without any loss in image quality.
A bitmap image is literally that, a map of the pixels that make the image.
You can save a bitmap image in a vector image format, but when it's resized, you'll lose quality because the bitmap doesn't contain size information, like a vector drawing does.
A bitmap just says "there's a red dot here, a blue dot there, and a green dot there". A vector drawing says "there's a red circle here, it's diameter is x. There's a green square there, it's height and length are x and y." Basically, when you have dimensions to work with, you can resize anything to scale - when you don't have those dimensions, you'd make a best guess.