Up to £200,000 needs to be spent to repair the landmark clock tower on Norwich City Hall.

The tower, which dates from 1938 and forms part of the Grade II* listed building, needs to be repointed, while the finials - the decorative features on the tower - also need to be mended.

Norwich City Council is advertising a tender for the work, which would be worth between £150,000 and £200,000.

The council is looking for a contractor who could start work in February next year, with the repair work completed by Apri1.

A council spokesman said: 'This work involves planned maintenance of hard-to-reach parts of the clock tower – the long vertical pieces of metal that sit on each corner at clock level and a fifth at the very pinnacle.

'These need to be removed, cleaned and recoated before being re-fixed, all in conjunction with our conservation team and Historic England.

'As the scaffolding will account for at least half of the cost, we will carry out other repair work to this important and historic landmark at the same time, including repointing some of the brickwork, to ensure value for money for the city.

'We will do our best to minimise disruption while the work is being carried out.'

The money will come from the council's capital budget.

It is not the first time the tower and its clock have cost the council money. In 2011, after the clock stopped, specialists had to strip the clock completely down and rebuild it after major problems were identified in the mechanism.

At a cost of £13,000, specialist Norwich-based company Michlmayr Clock & Watchmakers carried out the work to get the clock working again.

The clock has had its fair share of problems over the years, stopping completely around New Year in 2010, when the mechanism froze. while in 2005 it stopped working just months after thousands of pounds were spent fixing it.

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