A petition has been launched opposing a temporary move by Chelsea FC to Twickenham Stadium.

The Premier League toppers are looking for somewhere to play their home games while Stamford Bridge is expanded.

Twickenham Stadium is one of the few venues in west London big enough for a club of their size and the club has made an initial approach to owners the Rugby Football Union (RFU) about using the ground.

The possibility of Chelsea using the stadium for a season has met with a mixed reaction.

Politicians in Hounslow, whose borough boundary is a stone's throw from the stadium, are open to the move and the many Chelsea fans living in Isleworth have embraced the idea.

But there is fierce opposition from councillors and MPs in Richmond, the borough in which the stadium stands.

Twickenham MP Vince Cable has expressed serious concerns about the possibility of Chelsea using the ground and councillors in Twickenham last week wrote to the RFU urging it to reject any formal approach from Chelsea FC.

Alexander Ehmann, a Liberal Democrat councillor for St Margaret's and North Twickenham, has now started an online petition opposing the move.

It states: "Many local residents have raised legitimate concerns about the impact of at least 19 home fixtures of Chelsea Football Club being played at Twickenham Rugby Stadium.

"The area surrounding the Stadium is predominantly residential and the introduction of this scale and frequency of disruption will have traffic, policing and noise impacts that are wholly incompatible with the interests of the local community."

The owner of a local pub, who asked not to be named, today said he and his customers believed there was little chance of Chelsea FC using the stadium.

He added that if the club did come he would probably have to employ door staff on match days, which he said were not needed for rugby crowds.

* You can sign the petition here.