TIME will stand still in Selkirk until contractors own up to breaking the town clock.

Just weeks after a £430,000 refurbishment was completed on the iconic town hall, the clock has regularly stopped and for a while it even went backwards.

Further problems with seized doors and water leaks were also discovered.

While the front doors have now been opened and estimates in place for mending water damage, the town clock remains stuck.

And only when it is determined who caused the damage to its mechanism will it start ticking again.

Selkirkshire councillor Gordon Edgar said: "The estimate for repairing the mechanism is quite high.

"There is a discussion taking place about who caused the fault - was it the builders who repaired the stonework or was it the company who took away the clock faces for refurbishment?

"The man who designed and built the mechanism is willing to come and carry out the repairs, but we need to know who will pay the bill first."

Scaffolding was first erected around the Town Hall in October 2017.

And for the next 12 months contractors repaired the external stonework and internal fittings.

Initial repairs costing £300,000 on the clocktower began last year.

But the bill for fixing the problems soon escalated with an additional £130,000 being required midway through the project.

Work on the 226-year-old building, which houses Sir Walter Scott's Courthouse Museum, was completed just before Christmas.