Dartmouth town councillors are questioning whether they should pay the latest architect's bill for work on the town centre market – which has just undergone a £400,000 facelift.

Councillors have recommended they tell Dartmouth-based architects Robert Seymour and Associates they will not pay a bill thought to be about £4,000.

The exact reason for refusing to pay up was being kept under wraps as the town councillors went behind closed doors to debate the issues before making their recommendation.

But at the same meeting they admitted publicly there were lessons to be learned about the way the whole market contract had been handled – which included failing to agree a fixed price contract with the architects over costs.

Robert Seymour Associates has already been paid almost £30,000 for the work the firm did on drawing up the plans and other work on the new-look market complex and project management.

The bill the town councillors are looking at now is for extra work for which the architect's firm says it is owed.

Members of the town council's corporate property committee went behind closed doors before recommending the council should write to the firm saying it would not pay the latest bill and saying why.

The final decision will be made by the full council on Monday.

Meanwhile, architect Robert Seymour said his firm was still carrying out work at the market which includes 'snagging' work.

He said: 'If what is recommended does go through we will be extremely disappointed because we have worked very hard to look after Dartmouth Town Council's interests.'

The committee had been presented with a document, entitled Lessons Learnt from the Refurbishment of the Market, that suggested if the council was doing the job again it would have agreed a fixed price when it came to the architect's fees – plus 'an indication of incidental costs – for example photocopying and postage'.

Mayor Paul Allen also questioned whether the council should have gone out to 'competitive tendering' when it came to appointing architects.