A council has apologised after planting trees in the middle of a football pitch — but said it would not immediately remove the new plants.

Residents of Logie Durno, in Aberdeenshire, turned up for a kickabout at the local playing field to discover a copse of young fruit trees had been planted on the pitch.

Goalposts remained in place at the playing field, making for scenes described as "baffling" by residents. The council said there was another football pitch nearby but admitted it had not consulted the community before planting the trees, which it said it had done to boost diversity.

Steven Jaffray, who runs the Logie Durno community hall, told the Evening Express: "Unless Aberdeenshire Council has added the trees for extra dribbling practice, I think it’s ridiculous.

"I just can’t understand the thinking behind it, especially plonking them right in the pitch. It’s baffling to say the least. People do use this space year-round."

A council spokesman said: "It would seem that we were barking up the wrong tree with plans for this site.

"The intention was to turn over part of the area for biodiversity as anecdotally it was rarely used. However it is clear now that the community were not engaged with this plan.

"As such we are going back to first principles with them so they can help use decide what this area should be used for.​

"There are full pitches immediately next to this area for community leisure use and the trees will remain on this site until we can come to an agreement with residents.