FREAK legal circumstances have stalled plans by Stoke Prior parish councillors to provide new facilities at Stoke Heath recreation ground.

As well as extending the recreation ground and providing a football pitch, the council wanted to construct a basketball half-court.

Councillors have leased additional land from the Croft Trust and applied to put down hard standing for the court.

But the plans were blocked by objections from a specialist advisor to Bromsgrove District Council, who said the land is a historic park which would be spoiled by a tarmacadam surface.

District councillor John Tidmarsh (Con, Stoke Prior), who sits on the planning committee, said: "This was an unusual contribution from an unusual source. I cannot remember the last time they made a contribution."

Parish councillor Geoff Whitehouse told the meeting on Monday night he could not understand how this historic park status was not known to the solicitors drawing up the lease.

The parish council hopes to place the basketball court on the existing recreation ground, which is not subject to the same restrictions.