Campaigners have been left ‘outraged’ over plans to turn The Swan pub in Ley Hill into a children’s nursery.

Groups from Ley Hill will be travelling to Amersham on Thursday evening to object to the planning application that is being raised at a planning meeting held at Chiltern District Council.

A spokesman for the campaigners have claimed that villagers have shown ‘overwhelming support for the pub’ since it has been under new management and believe that the pub is ‘still very viable to remain as a public house.’

Previously, petitions have been launched by residents in the village to save the building.

The pub was originally three cottages, built in the village in the 16th century. Plans to convert the property into a new nursery have been condemned by individuals and groups in the village, who have voiced their objections to the plans for numerous reasons.

Georgina Lomnitz said: “I strongly object to the proposed change of use of the Swan pub into a children’s nursery. This beautiful pub is a thriving, well-established business and, together with the Crown pub, caters for different sorts of customers.

“There are plenty of children’s nursery facilities nearby, as well as a school. Currently there is a large volume of traffic through Ley Hill – additional traffic would be extremely detrimental to the area and the community.”

Former resident Ashleigh Reynolds said: “There is little to no parking near The Swan which would cause terrible congestion in Ley Hill. The loss of this property as a pub would also mean a huge loss of a community space for the village.”

Derek Allen said: “The building itself is clearly one of the most attractive and most photographed pub buildings in the county and has historically attracted people from far and wide.

“The interior is a higgledy-piggledy mix of self-contained areas, nooks and crannies which would in a sensible world make it thoroughly unsuitable as a nursery or pretty much anything else other than its current function.”

Iona Simpson and William Goodes said: “Local residents already have to compete to park in the area in front of the two pubs due to lack of driveways and parking space availability on Kiln Lane.

“The assumption that all residents will be commuting at peak nursery drop off and pick up times does not take into account that there are a number of residents who are retired, self-employed or home workers.”