THE race to solve a funding crisis over the new-look Market Hall in Cleobury Mortimer has been put on hold after parish councillors were "strongly advised" by legal eagles to keep quiet on the subject.

Parish councillors were unable to discuss the latest plans to find the money at Monday's meeting of the parish council, after the intervention by South Shropshire District Council.

They have instead had to apply to a watchdog at the district council for an order giving them the right to decide how the money - estimated at up to £90,000 - will be raised.

Members need to register any "interests" in the market hall as they are also its trustees, said monitoring officer at South Shropshire District Council Richard Thomas. Any interest, he said, could affect their ability to "do the job properly".

He said: "My recommendation is that they should defer consideration of this issue until they have looked into member interests.

"The parish council can to apply to the district council's standards committee for dispensation to speak and vote on that subject."

The move meant a series of emergency measures proposed by councillor Adrian Pearce - one of the chief instigators of the market hall project - to sort out the problem, were struck off the agenda for Monday's parish meeting.

This included paying £12,500 to contractor R Drinkwater and Sons using money raised from council tax funds as well as opening the hall to paying tenants.

In the latest twist to the drama surrounding the final payment on the £300,000 market hall, parish clerk Eric Mark said member interests had now been registered with the standards committee, which will make the crucial decision on Tuesday.

He said: "The monitoring officer strongly advised it would be in our best interests that we do not discuss anything about it.

"We were quite ignorant in a way in that we did not know we had to declare these interests. This is relatively new legislation."

A parish council meets on how to pay the bill on July 16, but only if members are given the green light by the standards committee. The meeting, in the parish hall, begins at 7.30pm.