A TRUST set up more than 50 years ago to help pay for a university education for male students from specific areas of Bromsgrove was branded as discriminating against women this week.

The remark was made by Labour district and county councillor Peter McDonald who said he had been approached by a disgruntled Stoke Prior resident.

The man said his daughter had been refused a grant from the James William Reeves' Trust, which is administered by Worcestershire County Council.

Cllr McDonald, who represents Rubery on the county authority, said: "I have asked the county council's chief executive, Rob Sykes, to investigate the matter as this clearly discriminates against women and is something the council should not be associated with in this day and age."

He added that the family who complained to him did not want to be named.

A county council press spokesman said the authority administers several trusts, some favouring males some females, which would seem to balance each other out.

He added the Reeves' Trust was set up in 1954 to provide grants for males from the Stoke Prior, Stoke Works and Aston Fields areas who wished to go to university, preferably to study science or medicine.

Mr Reeves was a rate collector who lived at the Red House, in Stoke Works. It is not known why he made specific conditions in the trust

The spokesman added that the council acted as "honest brokers" within the terms of the trusts, but would seek to make changes whenever it was appropriate to do so.