Funding plea over clock stuck in limbo

COMMUNITY leaders in Portobello are seeking charity funding to re-hang a 200-year-old clock at the centre of a legal wrangle that has seen it consigned to storage for the last seven years.

The city council agreed to repair the historic Portobello Baptist Church clock in 2003, at a cost of 47,000, on behalf of the local community when bits of iron started falling off it.

But the council also handed a statutory notice to the church to repair the stonework of the building before the clock could be hung again. The church refused to cover the cost, arguing that the 50,000 bill would be crippling.

The clock was gifted to the town of Portobello to hang on its new town hall building in 1815, The baptist church bought the building around 90 years ago.

The clock has been lying in storage for the last seven years, but Portobello Community Council is determined to see it reinstated.

Chairman John Stewart said: "We are now looking at other options such as charity funding."

A council spokeswoman said: "All parties are working towards a solution."