A WARY parish council is looking a gift horse in the mouth until it establishes just who owns its riverside village green.

Neasham Parish Council only recently discovered it did not own a strip of land adjoining the green, which was given to the village nearly 50 years ago.

The then owner of Neasham Abbey handed it over, but failed to change the deeds. Peter Phillips, the new owner, discovered the discrepancy when he bought the property and has since agreed to make the gift an official one.

At Wednesday's council meeting, Coun John Weighell, chairman, raised doubts over whether the village or the borough council owned the green.

He told Mr Phillips: "The borough council is going to charge us £500-plus in legal fees for the transfer. If we are only the guardians of the land, you are virtually giving them that land.

"Why should we pay for something the borough council is gong to own."

But Coun Peter Foster, also a borough councillor, insisted that village greens traditionally belonged to the people, dating back to Saxon times.

"That is why, at Hurworth, we have people buried on our green from the Black Death. Although Darlington doesn't know half the land it does own, that is your village green."

Clerk, Gordon Sirrell, has been authorised verify the situation via the Land Registry.