The refurbishment of Penryn's landmark clocktower is going well but has thrown up some extra costs, according to town's mayor Mark Snowdon.

But town councillors agreed not to "spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar" and it would be better to have the job done properly than face recurring problems in the future.

Mr Snowdon told a meeting of the council last week that the work was "going quite well" despite some inclement weather, but "there are a few extras that need to be priced up," including extra lead work and repairing the weather vane.

He said a piece of the 'W' had come off the weather vane last year, which was picked up by deputy-mayor Shelley Peters and is currently sitting in the council offices, and so a steeplejack team would be coming this week to remove the rest of the vane for repair.

He is also looking for prices to refurbish the hands and the dials on the town clock, which are "flaking off."

But he added that some money might be saved as the original estimate had included 400 linear yards of jointing, but workers are only replacing what needs to be replaced, and "they're not taking much out."

Mr Snowdon said: "I think it would be silly not to do [the work], that scaffolding hopefully won't go back up for 10 or 15 years."

Councillor Martin Mullins added: "I don't like money to be spent that's not allocated, but I'm drawn to that saying about spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar."

And Councillor Beverly Hulme said with a job like this it's "inevitable" extra work will be needed.