A PROPOSAL to convert an old fire bell in the loft of Marlborough Town Hall into a chiming clock has councillors in a right old ding-dong.

The idea, as reported in the Gazette a month ago, has come from the committee that planned the Wheels of Time town play for the recent charter anniversary celebrations.

It has money left in its kitty that it wants to spend on having the 100-year old fire bell, formerly operated by water, turned into a chiming clock.

The clock would have no dials but would chime on the hour and half hour, a format proposed by David Sherratt, who wrote, directed and took part in the Wheels of Time production.

However, some town councillors said there is no need for another clock in the town and, some claimed, the money the Wheels of Time committee propose spending rightly belongs to the town council.

Mr Sherratt, who lives on The Green, has argued that the remaining balance in the Wheels of Time account is nothing to do with the council because it was raised separately from the 2000 celebrations fund raising that the town council underwrote to the extent of £15,000.

The retired schoolmaster said in a letter to councillors that the money was raised by sponsorship for the play and not for the general celebrations and went into a ring-fenced "cost centre" held by the town council.

Mr Sherratt wrote: "By judicious management of the play's expenses this cost centre now has a surplus."

He said, if the chiming clock proposal was supported, members of the Wheels of Time committee would ask their original sponsors if the balance of the funds could go to the clock project.

However, on Monday, members of the town council recreation and amenities committee that administers the town hall threw out the idea.

Coun Maurice Cooper said: "We have perfectly good clocks at either end of the High Street and a new one outside the Jubilee Centre. What do we want another one for?

"I really cannot see the advantage of having a chiming clock on top of this building," said Coun Cooper, referring to the town hall where the meeting took place.

He added: "It's quite likely it will not chime in time with the clocks at St Mary's and St Peter's and they are always a minute or so apart anyway."

Mayor Coun Graham Francis, however, thought the chiming clock proposal was "an absolutely splendid idea".

Coun Francis said he always liked to hear the large number of chiming clocks when he travelled to Austria and other parts of Europe and said: "It's a nice idea because Marlborough does not have much of this sort of thing."

He said that from the lower side of the High Street by the town hall neither of the church clocks or the one by the Jubilee Centre could be seen and he thought a chiming clock at the town hall would be useful.

Coun Francis said: "We have nothing which actually celebrates our 800th birthday, nothing tangible anyway. This would be a nice way of celebrating the town's birthday."

Coun Richard Allen argued that the money claimed by the Wheels of Time committee rightfully belonged to the town council.

Committee chairman Coun Peggy Dow was of the same mind and said: "I believe the money that the 2004 committee or Wheels of Time committee has is council money and if this proposal goes ahead it should be a council project."

Coun Bryan Castle backed Mr Sherratt's proposal and said: "I think it's a splendid idea and I am prepared to put money where the chime is personally to the extent of a three figure sum."

By a majority vote the committee threw out the proposal with members saying they might reconsider it if other funding could be found.