Opponents of a new housing development in Gloucestershire sent hate mail and rotten food to the bishop of Gloucester after it emerged properties would be built on church land.
The protests follow a proposal by the Gloucester diocese to sell land in a Cotswold village for new housing.
Residents of Willersey, near Stow-on-the-Wold, claim the diocese has not kept residents properly informed about its plans.
The bishop, the Right Rev Rachel Treweek, said she had been sent rotten food and “not particularly pleasant” emails. She denied any coverup about plans to sell 35 acres of church-owned land, valued at £3m, to developers.
Residents are concerned that development could eventually double the size of Willersey and undermine the village’s character and charm.
As well as receiving hundreds of letters, Treweek said she had been sent “a couple of parcels containing food” with anonymous notes attached. “They might have been sent with good intentions but had gone rotten by the time they arrived,” she said.
A spokesperson for the bishop said: “She has had some not very nice messages, but is dealing with it fine.”
Treweek attended a public meeting this week along with some 200 residents, who voiced their opposition to the way the diocese was handling the proposed land sale. “Things have not been good in the communication process, but to suggest anyone’s been underhand or I’m not coming clean is just untrue,” she told the BBC.
The bishop told residents at the meeting that she did not want to “over-house” the village and that no deal about the land sale had yet been agreed.
Treweek became the most senior female bishop in the Church of England when she was appointed in March this year.
