VILLAGERS are up in arms over plans to demolish their church hall and put a car park over part of the graveyard.

Litton Cheney residents have reacted strongly to plans for a car park for St Mary's Church, a Grade I listed building, that have been submitted to West Dorset District Council.

John Randall has lived in Litton Cheney for 27 years and says the plans for a car park at the church, parts of which were built in the 14th century, have caused outrage in the village.

He said: "I am very much against what they are doing. People have been going up to that church for 500 years and they have not worried about it before.

"They are going to knock the church hall down to be able to do it and widen a foot path to a Tarmac road. They intend to put the road right up to within a foot or 18 inches of the old 15th century tower. I'm very concerned about what could happened with the vibrations."

Mr Randall added: "This is a lovely old church that a lot of people come to see from all over the country. This is the biggest upset there has been in the village in all the time I have been here."

Edward Stone, who lives in a cottage right next to the church, said: "I'm very upset about it, I don't like the idea of churchyards having Tarmac.

"Apart from the beauty of the thing, you will also have problems with the water running off it and things like that."

Many of the villagers have submitted representations to planners in response to notice of the planning application on West Dorset District Council's website.

James Davey used to lived at Looke Farm, just outside Litton Cheney, for five years and moved to Kent last year. He said: "I was talking to people who still live in the village and I was quite surprised at the strength of feeling. But we are talking about people who were christened there, married there and had family buried there."

In a letter to the planning officer in the case Mr Davey wrote: "A church has no right to a car park. It is not their business to desecrate monuments that we leave in their trust just to suit modern convenience, their business is to save souls."

Chairman of the Parish Council and church warden Freddie Spicer said that the church needs to improve access and the old church hall was becoming too expensive to maintain.

He said: "The Parochial Church Council has taken the view that the answer is to demolish the old hall to provide a way into the churchyard and to widen the existing tarmac path to provide sufficient access."

Mr Spicer added: "Those people who use the church and tend to the church are all for it.

"It's only people who seem to have nothing to do with the church who seem to be against it."