Star 'Boycie' joins opposition over plan for village homes on Shropshire border

The TV actor, who starred as Boycie in the cult BBC sitcom, lives near the proposed development off Rosemary Lane in Leintwardine, near Ludlow, and said it would double the size of the village were it to go ahead.

Applicant LWD Developments has submitted a bid for outline planning permission – the green light in principle – to build a development of up to 50 homes on the land.

But 195 objections from villagers and those living nearby have been lodged with Herefordshire Council to the plans, including Anne Brandrick, the headteacher of Leintwardine Endowed Primary School.

She says the school is already full to capacity and that extra building work and new staff would be needed to cope with the influx of new people into the village if the development got the go-ahead.

A petition has also been handed in to council chiefs carrying 373 signatures calling for the application to be refused.

Now Challis, who lives in between Wigmore and Leintwardine, has joined the side of protesters and took to Twitter yesterday to express his displeasure at the plans.

He tweeted:

In her objection to the plans, Alison Kay, chairman of Leintwardine Parish Council, said: "Leintwardine is a beautiful, historical, rural village. This proposed development would destroy the beauty, history and rural nature of Leintwardine.

"Leintwardine does not have the infrastructure to support a development of this size and there is very little employment in the area."

LWD Developments says changes have been made to the application and it had also been slightly downscaled following concerns raised at a public forum in June this year.

Bosses say the scheme would bring a number of benefits to the village, such as new jobs and contributions to local facilities through planning agreements.