LANCASTER Town Hall clock is in the running for a complete face-lift in time for the new millennium.

Lancaster City Council has become one of ten councils from across the country to go forward to the final stage of the Rotary Watches' Changing Face competition - putting them in the running for a share of the £10,000 prize.

The Changing Face competition invited councils nationwide to prove their town hall clock is worthy of a tailor-made facelift in time for the chiming in of the year 2000.

Lancaster and the other short-listed councils were picked from more than 300 that responded to the competition. Rotary judges will pick five winners from the shortlist, each being awarded £2,000 for the renovation or repair of their nominated clock. All of the ten councils have been invited to submit a final application outlining why their clock is a worthy winner.

Rotary are delighted with the response to the competition on both a local and national level.

Organisers have been impressed with the high standard of all the entries and admitted judging the final stage would prove tough.

Rotary marketing director Roger Hopkins explained the rationale behind the campaign: "Town hall clocks are the very heart of community life as well as being fine examples of civic ingenuity and design. Given Rotary's brand values of heritage and craftsmanship, what better way to celebrate the millennium than by preparing these wonderful civic monuments for a new era."

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