THE clock on Morley Town Hall is to remain silent until the money can be found by Leeds City Council for a major change in its mechanism.
The city council is looking at a bill of over £10,000 for a clock expert to alter the mechanism so its chimes are not disrupted every time there is a power cut.
Alan Clarkson, the Asset and Property Maintenance Manager for the council, wrote to th
e Mayor of Morley, Coun Terry Grayshon, to explain that whenever there is a power cut at Morley Town Hall, the chimes are knocked out of sequence.
He said: "Over the last two years this has happened on a regular basis with power cuts happening every couple of weeks or so."
The cost of restoring the chimes after one of these power cuts is £200, a significant amount of money to be spending every few weeks.
Mr Clarkson said: "I am sure you will agree that it is better to leave the chimes turned off and put the funding that would be used to make a temporary repair towards the cost of the refurbishment, which at the moment looks like being in excess of £10,000."
He added: "I will see that applications for the funding are made to the appropriate group as quickly as possible, once the total cost of the scheme has been determined."
The mayor said: "I am concerned that this has been allowed to drag on for such a long time. It has been just over a month since I wrote to Mr Clarkson about it."
He added that while the alterations were not a simple matter, the clock had been in place since 1895 and it was important the chimes be restored as soon as possible.
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