PARK users fear "ill-conceived" plans to site an outdoor gym in Mary Stevens Park could spoil the popular Stourbridge beauty spot for good.

Dudley Council has listed three possible places to put the 16-station multi-gym - similar to LA's famous bodybuilding haunt Muscle Beach, but the Friends group which aims to preserve the Norton park has objected to all of them.

They say they are not against the outdoor gym altogether, but the locations shortlisted are not suitable and could ruin the park forever.

Norton councillor Heather Rogers, chairman of the Friends of Mary Stevens Park, said: “We’re not against the outdoor gym - it’s just the siting of it.

“Mary Stevens Park has got a lot of beauty and people come here to enjoy the open space.

“We dont want to spoil the beautiful views. We’d prefer the gym to be put in an area that isn’t so widely used for picnic-ing. We’ve given two other suggestions.”

Park fan Russell Eden has set up a website - www.marystevenspark.org.uk - and twitter page (twitter.com/fomsp) for fellow park users to find out more about the plans, encouraging them to contact Dudley Council with their views before it is too late.

He said: “We need to get people - if they agree with us - to put pen to paper and object to what they’re planning to do.

“It’s ill-conceived. If they put it where families have picnics - they’re going to completely make out of bounds a very popular part of the park.”

The gym - aimed at people with disabilities and young children - forms part of wider regeneration plans for the park, which are due to go before Dudley Council planners on Monday (November 23) and which would see the existing pavilion revamped to include a kitchen, meeting room and outside seating area.

Both the gym and the pavilion extension would be funded with £300,000 - part of a £4.5m grant awarded to Dudley to create health hubs in five parks - to help tackle obesity and encourage people to become more active.

The council says it has already held a public consultation on the potential locations for the gym and further updates will be published on its website.

But the Friends say Dudley Council has failed to consult park users properly and they fear the scheme will go ahead regardless of people's views.

Stourbridge MP Lynda Waltho said: “The park is for everybody and it is important there is a gym, but it has to be in consultation with the Friends of the Park - as they are in touch with the people using the park all the time.”

A spokesman for Dudley Council said today: "We are aware of the concerns on the siting of the equipment and will be sitting down with representatives of the friends group and local councillors within the next few weeks to discuss how best we can address them."

Anyone wishing to comment on the gym plans can email project manager Dean Hill at dean.hill@dudley.gov.uk by Sunday November 22.

An application for planning permission for the new pavilion is set to go before Dudley Council planners on Monday November 23, but the gym does not require planning consent.