A two-year battle to stop a developer putting 121 houses on a school playing fields has suffered a major setback after planning permission was granted.

Council planners voted to approve Persimmon Homes' development of the Martineau Centre, in Balden Road, Harborne, despite turning down similar proposals two years ago.

It means that much of the centre will be demolished - leaving only the historic clock tower building as a community building - and most of the playing field developed.

The award of planning permission comes just a month after it emerged the city council, which had used the former school as offices, had struck a secret deal with the developer in 2012 to sell the site following the award of planning permission.

Opponents of the housing scheme say the area has a shortage of playing fields and could do with the school being reopened as others are full.

But council planners were told there had been no objections from the education department over school places, and no complaints from Sport England over the loss of playing fields as the developer agreed to pay for a new astroturf pitch at Lordswood School nearby.

Speaking for objectors, Coun Caroline Badley (Lab, Quinton) said: "The planning committee has rejected these plans twice before and this new application is not significantly different so they should reject it again.

"We are facing the loss of playing pitches and we already have a shortage in this area."

Committee member John Clancy (Lab, Quinton) who added: "Having thrown this out twice, I thought we would see a significant improvement.

"But we have three more affordable houses, a few extra square feet of public open space and little bit more money."

He said that improvements in the housing market since 2012 meant the developer could have given more ground.

Coun Barry Henley (Lab, Brandwood) said the council should have got a better deal from Persimmon.

"I wouldn't send these council officers to buy a second hand car," he added.

But Coun Henley and others said the council, as landowner, had sealed the centre's fate when it decided it did not need the site and put it up for sale.

The committee voted by nine to three to approve the demolition and redevelopment.