REGULARS battling to save a popular Southampton pub from demolition plan to stage a mass protest at a crunch planning meeting on Monday.

Drinkers at The Saints, in Millbrook, will be out in force to voice their anger over a controversial scheme to knock down the pub and replace it with a block of 34 flats.

Pub regulars have mounted an impassioned campaign to save the pub, and say about 1,000 signatures have been collected from locals objecting to the scheme.

The proposals were revealed in the Daily Echo last month, when the pub's owner Enterprise Inns submitted plans to knock down the pub and replace it with a three and four-storey block of flats.

Since then, regulars have mounted a campaign to save the pub from closure - even setting up their own website to bolster their fight.

Over the past month, one regular has staged a rooftop protest to save the threatened facility, and customers have also gathered outside the premises with banners and posters in a mass demonstration.

The controversial scheme was originally due to be heard by members of Southampton City Council's Planning and Rights of Way panel on May 25.

In the latest twist to the saga, residents now find they have to present their case for saving the pub at a meeting to be held on Monday.