A pensioner fears his grandparents' grave could be gravelled over and used for car parking.

Jeff Knapp, 70, is angry that plans to revamp Corsham shopping precinct include using part of an old graveyard to extend car parking.

"The car park should not be in the graveyard at all," he said.

"It is sacred ground and people bought their plots. My grandfather bought his plot years before he died. It doesn't seem right to sell the ground now to someone else."

Mr Knapp, from South Street, said his grandfather Maurice Knapp was buried in 1945, and his grandmother, Sarah, was buried in 1933. The couple still have a headstone in the graveyard.

The scheme submitted by Castlefield Land and Springfield Properties was approved by members of North Wiltshire District Council's area development control committee last week, though several councillors raised concerns about the graveyard.

The precinct facelift would include extending Somerfields supermarket, building two new shops, extending the car park, building a new toilet block and improving the appearance of the older shops with new shopfronts and glazed canopies.

The scheme also includes converting a listed building, the former United Reformed Church, into two food and drink outlets.

The majority of the churchyard would be used as a garden area, with remaining headstones put against the wall, but a section would be used as car parking.

Mr Knapp said he could accept the change to a garden, but he did not want cars parking above the remains of his grandparents.

He said he had tried to work out whether the grave would fall within the area designated as car park, but was unable to calculate it from the plans.

Jacqui Ratcliffe, of Yockney Close, Corsham, has around 15 relatives buried in the graveyard and she took her concerns straight to developers Castlefield.

A representative from the company showed her a plan of the graveyard, marked out with all the plots, and she was happy her relatives were not in the area to be covered by the gravel car park.

"My grandmother's there," she said. "My great uncle has parents and grandparents buried there too. But Castlefield did not try to hide anything and treated us with respect."

District council officers had recommended the plans be refused because of the impact on the listed building.

But Corsham Town Council fully supported the plans, and at the meeting chairman Coun Roger Fido asked members to approve the plans.

"When the district council bought the precinct we knew they would not be able to fund improvements," he said.

"Timing is critical for the developers. Somerfield want to be operational by autumn."

He said any delays could spell doom for the scheme, which would be a disaster.

"It would be nice to have bulldozers in to get rid of the precinct but that will not happen. This is the best we can hope for," he said.

Coun Eric Porter said: "When Sainsburys moved to the edge of Chippenham, Corsham became a ghost town. Somerfield is very small and people will go elsewhere, which means the other shops will suffer. We have one chance now."