A RUGBY club's plans for floodlights have been dashed by plans.

Somerset West and Taunton Council have refused to allow Huish Tigers to install the ten lights.

The recently-formed club, consisting of current and former Richard Huish College students, had wanted the extendable 12-metre high floodlights for training sessions and matches.

They would have been used on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in the winter.

Planners turned down the application for the floodlights on the pitch at Ash Meadows Park, in the Vivary 'green wedge'.

They ruled against the scheme as the pitch is "adjacent to a country wildlife site" and surroundings are "potential habitats for protected species".

The council also considered the fact that the pitch is in open countryside, within the green wedge and next to an existing floodlit sport pitch.

Huish Tigers were launched in February last year.