The Dr Evershed Memorial Clock has stood watch over the Carp St-Gipps St intersection for 86 years, but it seems now the tide of public sentiment is saying time’s up.

Bega District News readers responded in numbers after we published a preview of Wednesday’s council meeting agenda.

The item of most interest was the potential relocation of the Bega clock tower and where it would move to in the event of its shift.

The obvious location would be Littleton Gardens as it goes through a redevelopment all of its own.

However, that’s not to everyone’s liking – not surprising seeing as how, if you follow the conversations on BDN online and social media, there are plenty unhappy with the gardens’ new look.

We hear that during the council meeting, council group managers suggested to councillors the landscape master plan consultants, Spiire Group, had put forward the clock tower’s relocation as an option.

If so, that must have been a verbal discussion because in the final plan publicly available on Spiire’s website it is quite simply not the case.

From what we can see, there is zero reference to the clock’s relocation.

In fact, Spiire’s recommendations are to make a feature of the clock tower, to “celebrate its heritage and its setting in the streetscape”.

How is it that council staff are suggesting otherwise?

In March last year, much was made of the clock’s connection to town power.

Few would have failed to notice the clock does not show the correct time. It hasn’t done for more than a year, with the mechanism stopped and  each face showing something different.

Connection to permanent power was a great first step in breathing new life into the treasured monument. However, it soon became apparent more repair work was needed for the internal mechanisms.

Estimates for the work have been quoted up to $20,000. Relocation up to $50,000.

A discussion around the Dr Evershed Memorial Clock’s new site will be put to the community.

On a side note, we have no word as yet as to the possibility of WW2 tunnels underneath the clock, but we’re delving into it.