In the centre of Newport, South Wales, stands a 30-foot arch with a clock face on its pediment; only the trident and dragon's tail tips to the hands hint that there is more to the stately edifice than there appears.

As the hour strikes, a clap of thunder is heard from within.  A hidden door opens in a pillar, and amid flashes of lightning the Devil appears in a cloud of smoke, pointing at the clock. As he vanishes, two concealed hatches under the clock open and out pop grinning skeletons, waving hourglasses and shaking their heads. It is all to remind us of the passing of time and our own mortality.

Then all Hell breaks loose, so to speak. Cracks appear across the pillars and clock, and shuddering and groaning, the six-ton arch falls apart as if by the hand of some invisible Samson, its broken pieces coming to rest at crazy, precarious angles. Inside the pediment, split wide open, a giant cuckoo clock mechanism is revealed. A boiler-suited angel is riding on the swinging pendulum, fluttering his wings, and the two great weights slowly drop down through the opening. Then it all stops.

Suddenly, a cuckoo appears from the crack in a broken column. He wakes up two angels inside the clock, who spring into action and wind up the weights, and the arch comes together again and snaps shut for another hour, just as if nothing had happened.

The whole pageant is reminiscent of medieval allegorical clocks and a Roland Emmett mechanical animation, not to mention the famous Guinness Clock.

Andy Plant, the designer and builder of the Newport Civic Clock, is a true successor to Roland Emmet.  His workshop and studio, Jumble Hole Works near Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, is where the clock was built (bottom).

The place is as picturesque as its name, if not more so. A near-derelict mill, hidden away by a stream on a wooded hillside, it would serve as a setting for "Last of the Summer Wine". Andy's main work is in designing and making theatrical props, but his "mechanical sculptures" include other civic clocks in Chelsea, Covent Garden and Accrington. They are all of the same ilk - entertaining, artistic and stunningly ingenious. The Newport clock's design came to him in a sudden flash of inspiration, in virtually its final form. He has a model of an alternative design he offered to Newport Council - a giant rotating fish that would, inter alia, spray water and play music from a foghorn in its belly. Genius always has cropped up in strange places!

As a prototype for a Meccano model, Newport's allegorical clock (designed and built in 1991) satisfied all requirements. A classical arch, 30 feet high, it is no twee thing, but for 57 minutes of the hour it seems harmless enough. But when the hour strikes, the other 3 minutes can seen an eternity. It is designed to startle the passer-by and remind him of the inexorable passing of time and his own mortality, and it does!  After thunder, lightning, smoke and sudden apparitions of a devil and grinning skeletons, it carries on where the Guinness Clock left off when the huge arch splits apart, high above the onlooker's head, with its 6-ton weight coming to rest balanced at crazy angles.

The spectacle is vertiginous and comical in a weird sort of way. Inside, life-size (ie human-size) angels are revealed, two manning a giant cuckoo clock and another riding on the pendulum, wings flapping. When the two clock weights have dropped fully, the pendulum stops and it all falls still. Then a cuckoo pops out and wakes the angels, who wind up the weights and the arch comes together again and snaps shut as if it was all a bad dream. It would persuade any unsuspecting onlooker to drink less Guinness!

The landmark clock in Newport city centre is to be put into storage during redevelopment work but there are fears it will not be re-erected.

The timepiece, which was made for the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival in 1992, has stood in the city's John Frost Square after being bought for nearly £100,000.

Other monuments are also being put into storage including a war memorial.

A Newport Council spokesman said no plans had been made on where the pieces will be placed after work is completed.

The clock is just one of several items of "public art works" within the city centre that is having to be moved as work takes place as part of the multi-million pound Modus and Kingsway retail regeneration schemes.

It had become one of the city's visitor attractions because of how it opens up on the hour to reveal figures inside, although in recent months the mechanisms within the clock have failed.

Newport Council has confirmed that it will be dismantled and put into storage along with the other art works but admitted that no firm plans had been made for where they will be re-erected.

It has led to fears that the clock and other pieces will not be re-erected once the work has been completed.

Councillor Peter Davies said: "The clock hasn't been working for some time, I took my grandson to see it and realised it was broken, so I wrote to the council asking when it was going to be fixed."

He said the reply he received informed him that the clock was being put into storage during the renovation works.

"I asked where it was going to be put [after the works] and they didn't know," he said.

"I think this is awful - they've got a trophy piece of clockwork and they don't know where they are going to put it.

"They spent nearly £100,000 on it 10 years ago so I should think it is worth a lot more money now."

Mr Davies said he feared that the clock would remain in storage and not be re-erected at all.

"We need to maintain what we have got and I'm determined to ensure that what we have paid for remains and doesn't disappear," he added.

He said he was concerned about the future of the other pieces being put into storage including wall mosaics and other items.

Michael Francis from Newport Civic Society added: "There seems be a number of problems and we keep hammering away at them but we just don't know whether it will make a difference.

"We know the clock is going and we are very concerned about the sculpture that is there, we had hoped they would be able to incorporate it in the design but they weren't able to.

"So it looks like it will be removed."

A spokesman for Newport Council said the clock would be dismantled within weeks and put into storage.

He added that although no plans had been made for where the pieces will be re-erected, detailed plans due to be received by the council from developers were expected to give further information.