FURIOUS residents are mounting protest plans against a councillor's idea to rename a Lincolnshire town.

Gainsborough could be known as Gainsborough-Upon-Trent, under a motion submitted by town councillor David Dobbie.

But the name change idea has been labelled "utterly stupid", with a campaign group on internet social networking site Facebook attracting almost 800 members in four days.

A petition is also believed to have been circulated around shops in the town.

Mr Dobbie's motion was due to be discussed tomorrow at a full meeting of Gainsborough Town Council.

But it has now been withdrawn after it was wrongly submitted.

The authority said motions needed to be succinct and deal with a specific point, rather than multiple ones.

Mr Dobbie will have to resubmit the idea.

Gainsborough Town Council clerk Paul Leeder told the Echo: "Changing the name of Gainsborough is not a policy of the town council and it's never been discussed by the town council.

"The motion was wrongly submitted and has to be resubmitted."

The River Trent runs alongside the western boundary of Gainsborough, which is due to double in size with a new 2,500-home neighbourhood to be built on land off Foxby Lane.

Stoke-on-Trent and Newark-on-Trent already use the river their names.

Town councillor Pearl Banyard said she was against the idea, which would leave businesses, councils and emergency services shelling out more cash on unnecessary changes.

She said: "It's an utterly stupid idea. It's going to cost the taxpayers of this town so much money.

"All the emergency services, the hospitals and councils – from parish to county – will have to change things like letter headings and road signs.

"I would say there is a group of seven, maybe eight, councillors that are totally against it."

If Gainsborough-Upon-Trent came into existence, Royal Mail would be required to hold a minimum of three months' consultation with residents before deciding whether or not to change the town's postal address.

Royal Mail spokesman Ben Cawley said: "With regard to changing the postal address, it's something we could do, but it involves getting approval from bodies including the council, local MP and a certain proportion of the town's population."

Mr Dobbie was unavailable for comment yesterday.