Councillors have declared a U-turn over whose names should go on a plaque at Dartmouth's market as the whole issue degenerated into an 'utter farce'.

Originally the town council had agreed that the only council name that would appear on the granite stone marking the £400,000 market facelift would be that of deputy mayor Dave Cawley who will be declaring the revamped market open today.

But after protests from other councillors, it has now been decided to add the names of mayor Paul Allen, architects Robert Seymour and the builders RC Pillar and Sons.

It took eight councillors to demand a special town council meeting before they could force through the changes.

And there were concerns that there were now so many names on the plaque that the stonemason would have problems getting them all on.

Town clerk Chris Horan said he was confident the writing would fit on the stone and it would be ready in time for today's opening.

Meanwhile, Cllr Francis Hawke, who called for the rethink, said: 'If we do it again we should get it organised and don't make an utter farce of it.

'It does not look good in the eyes of the public.'

The town agreed to the wording on the stone at a meeting less than a month ago. They changed their minds at the special meeting on Monday at the Guildhall.

Cllr Hawke claimed that traditionally such plaques would have the name of the mayor as well as the builder and architect.

'I feel that whatever else is on this plaque it should have the name of the builder, architect and mayor,' he said. 'I felt that we needed to do the job properly.'

Cllr Cawley told the meeting he had always thought the extra names should have been on the stone.

Mr Horan told councillors the £300 cost of getting the stone carved would be borne by the builder and not the town's taxpayers.