Campaigners fighting plans to build five luxury homes in the shadow of an 800-year-old Ludlow church have issued a plea to the public to turn out in force at a “D-Day” meeting.

Residents opposing plans by St Laurence Homes to build the five homes on land behind 9-10 King Street will attend a site visit and a crunch planning meeting on Wednesday in a bid to show the strength of feeling of the community.

Community and church groups have been fighting the plans for the site, which lies next to St Laurence’s Church and the Grade I-listed Reader’s House for several years.

But they face a battle to stop them after planning officers recommended the plans for approval.

The plans will be discussed at a Shropshire Council south planning committee meeting at Ludlow Town’s SBS Stadium, and campaigners have urged members of the public to attend if they can.

Members of St Laurence’s Parochial Church Council have also claimed they own both the Church Walk footpath and the medieval wall backing on to the development site.

They have said they will not allow any foundations to be built beneath the footpath for fear of damaging church foundations or disturbing centuries-old graves.

Simon Buteux, who owns the Reader’s House, said it was vital as many residents tried to make the meeting to show how important the issue was to the people of Ludlow.

He said: “When we held a public meeting on this issue in the autumn we had the best part of 100 people present and we hope similar numbers will show up on Wednesday.

“People will be turning up at the site visit for councillors and at the meeting itself. It’s to underline the strength in feeling among local residents, and while we expect it to be quite low key we do want to get as many people mobilised as possible.

“This whole issue has made people very angry. We just hope that the meeting’s lunch time start won’t make it too difficult for people to make it.”

Groups opposing the plans include Ludlow Town Council, Ludlow Civic Society and Ludlow Conservation Area Advisory Committee.

On Wednesday the site visit is expected to take place at about midday and the meeting will start at 2pm.

By Peter Kitchen