A civil servant with a fear of heights is partly responsible for a Limburg village spending several hundred thousand euros more than the budget to renovate a church spire, the Volkskrant reports on Thursday.

The man was charged with supervising the renovation of Lambertus church in Nederweert but was too scared to climb the steeple to check on the work in progress. Instead, he asked the contractors to take photos of the work so he could give his approval.
By the time the local council realised what was happening, the budget had been over-run by €650,000, the paper says.
The huge bill eventually led to the resignation of council executive in charge of the project. The renovation of the church has not yet been finished, the Volkskrant said.