A BEWDLEY play area is to be saved with town council money - even though members say it is the district council's responsibility.

The equipment at Wyre Hill will stay but only after the town council agreed to stump up £3,750 to maintain it, a role already rejected by bosses at Wyre Forest District Council.

Plans were in place to take the equipment away after a review of play areas by the district council found the site to be under-used, at too great a distance from areas of housing and too small for an extension.

But despite several angry letters from the town council plus a petition, the town council has said it is resigned to maintaining the equipment with its own money.

One town councillor who fought to get the equipment for Wyre Hill in the first place, Louise Edginton, said: "I cannot understand how they can do this sort of thing in a place like Bewdley, it is wrong."

She said she was worried children would go near the River Severn to play if the play area closed.

Councillor Stephen Clee, who tabled the motion to put the money aside at the last meeting of the town council on April 28, said it was a "mature" step by members.

He said: "I am disappointed by the district council's decision but we have had to broker a deal otherwise we would lose the play area."

The play equipment was due to be removed after the district council carried out a review of facilities in Wyre Forest, leading to a decision by the executive to maintain just one site in Bewdley, at Northwood Lane.

Ironically, the cash to be used by the town council at Wyre Hill comes from the district council, courtesy of a recently resurrected grant scheme.

The programme of grant aid to parishes had been withdrawn in the early 1980s but resurrected during the last council budget, giving Bewdley £7,450 to spend on projects to "benefit the local community."