Resident irate over South Melbourne clock chimes

A City of Port Phillip ratepayer who is frustrated with the South Melbourne Town Hall clock chimes has contacted Tom Elliott.

The listener asked Tom whether he thinks it’s appropriate for the City of Port Phillip council to be waking residents with the clock chimes.

The chimes run from 7am to 11pm, and have been tolling since 1881.

Until 2010 the chimes tolled 24 hours a day. To accommodate residents’ concerns they were amended to their current operating times.

Cr Dick Gross, Mayor of Port Phillip, said the clock chimes start at 7am, not 6am as the listener advised.

“We’re a bit mystified by the complaint of it being at 6am so we’re sending a technician to visit tomorrow and adjust any fault if the clock chimes are starting an hour earlier,” he said.

Cr Gross said most residents love the chimes, and this was the first complaint he has heard about them recently.

“When we temporarily stopped it for maintenance we had to take calls from concerned residents wondering why it wasn’t chiming,” he said.