Time is no longer going backwards in Chester after the temporary replica Eastgate Clock was fixed.

Back in March it was noticed that contractors had ‘clocked-up’ by producing a mirror image of the clock face for a protective cover being used to hide scaffolding during restoration work.

Cheshire West and Chester Council leader Mike Jones was ‘amazed’ at the oversight and tweeted about the Roman numerals being printed back to front.

The council press office issued a statement saying ‘time will not be allowed to march backwards for very long’.

True to their word, the west side of the clock, adjacent to The Grosvenor Hotel, has now been fixed which puts an end to all the jokes associated with the comedy clock which was first spotted just in time for Comic Relief.

The council leader had originally anticipated the inaccurate clock face may remain as a quirky feature given it was only temporary.

Cllr Jones said back in March: “It’s almost as if it’s a negative, as though they have taken a picture and translated it the wrong way around, yet the 1897 is the right way around. I don’t know what’s happened there.”

He agreed it could become like the locally famous spelling error on the sign of city centre pub The Marlbororough Arms in St John Street.

But Cllr Jones added: “It does look quite smart. It’s better than the scaffold.”

The replica Eastgate Clock in Chester with the hands

In another council-related error, it this week emerged that more than 1,000 borough council ballot papers are being re-issued to postal voters in Frodsham and Chester’s Garden Quarter – because some political party emblems have been missed off the original documents.

Returning officer Steve Robinson has written to around 1,300 postal voters in the two wards advising them of the mistake and that they will need to vote again using the re-issued papers.

The party logo is missing alongside the name of one candidate in both cases.

The London-based company which printed the ballot papers on behalf of Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) is investigating the matter and will be expected to foot the bill for any costs incurred.