Residents have started a petition to halt the planned closure of an animal welfare charity centre based in Heydon, that is set to shut in 2021.

Wood Green, The Animal Charity's Heydon centre - which has been rehoming cats and small pets for the charity since 1954 - announced the news that they are set to close earlier this year.

But residents have responded, setting up their own petition which is nearing 1,000 signatures, in an attempt to keep the rehoming centre open.

According to Cassie Wardle, the orchestrator of the online petition, the charity has confirmed they have a £2 million budget to increase the cattery in Godmanchester, Cambs.

On the change.org page, she says: "Heydon is the one of the only accessible animal charity for so many small villages and it saves the lives of so many cats and small animals which are going to suffer because of the closure.

"Heydon is a valuable centre for not only the animals but the people and the charity and community it promotes. We must fight to keep Heydon open and show our support!"

Others public commentors remarked on the "valuable" service that Heydon has provided over the years and the potential detrimental affect on animals in the area if it did close.

One person said: "Places like Heydon are so important and need to stay open for animal's welfare. Without them, a lot of animals would suffer."

Another commented: "I used to work there 10 years ago and they help rescue, rehabilitate and rehome so many animals and have done over the years, a real real loss if it closes.

"Saving money and reducing costs can be done by other means but there are so many animals which will loose out, not forgetting so many staff who have worked there a long time!"

In response, a spokesperson from the charity said: "We recently completed a year-long assessment of our three rehoming sites and concluded that they all need significant investment that would come at an enormous cost to the charity, but would not increase the number of pets and people we can help.

"We will be focusing our efforts on our Godmanchester centre, which will have a new £2m cattery, for the care and rehoming of pets while developing scalable services to increase impact."

Wood Green centres outside of Cambridgeshire will also be affected, with the London shelter also due to close by March 2020.

You can view the petition here.