A cash-strapped church cannot afford to fix its broken clock.

The clock on the Waltham Abbey Church tower in Highbridge Street has been showing the time as 8.55 since Christmas.

A fault occurred last year and was thought to have been repaired in October.

But the clock stopped again and repairs were found to be more complicated than first thought.

Richard Walters, church warden, said: “It will be very expensive to fix and we don’t have the available funds to cover it at the moment."

The church has applied for grants for the work, but has so far had no success.