A BEWILDERED Neasham Parish Council has decided to accept responsibility for a wall on its village green that doesn't exist.

The saga of a strip of land it believed it already owned is dragging on as Darlington Borough Council brings in its final costs for conveyancing and conditions attached to the deeds.

Last month the village celebrated the good news that an unnamed donor was offering to pay the £1,124 cost of the land transfer.

On Monday, chairman Coun John Weighell revealed that surveys had cost £51.95 more than expected and the parish would pay for that.

But more puzzling was a notification that where Kent Beck joined the River Tees there was a party wall - which would have to be maintained jointly by the parish and borough councils.

"I've been down to look and all there is on the banks are some huge boulders put in there in 1996 by the Environment Agency to provide some stability," he said.

Coun Peter Foster said some of the maps held by County Durham and Darlington authorities went back centuries and he thought it was simply a case that nobody had checked that the wall in question was still there.

Coun Mike Townend suggested getting a council official out to have a look, but Coun Pat Murray pointed out: "It would probably cost us another £100 if they did that."

Coun Weighell said they should just accept the responsibility for the imaginary wall. "It is never ever going to come to anything and this is just dragging on and on and on." Everyone agreed.