FIFE COUNCIL should be clocking on at Dunfermline Abbey after discovering they don't need more time to replace the bell ringer.

They had applied for listed building consent to upgrade the electronic software system controlling the chimes at the 12th-century church.

Those plans have now been withdrawn as a council spokesperson confirmed this consent is not required.

Clockmakers Smith of Derby have provided a quote for the work – the price wasn’t revealed – that covers the design, development, manufacture and installation of a replacement bell-chiming control system.

The existing Dutch-manufactured electronic controller is to be removed with a “facility to manually operate the bell hammers via a keyboard, along with pre-programmed tunes, chimes and strikes to play automatically at pre-determined times” installed in its place.

The job includes the servicing of the 27 electro-magnetic hammers and training for staff on the use of the new equipment.

The company expects two engineers to take two days to complete the tasks.