A CHRISTIAN community has won permission to build a new church on the site of a derelict pub near Winchester.

City council planners have backed a scheme by the Winchester Gospel Hall Trust for the Lunways Inn, north of Kings Worthy on the A33.

The pub has been derelict for several years and was attacked by an arsonist in 2004. The old pub lost much of its trade when the M3 was opened in the mid-1980s. Most recently it was a restaurant called The Roman Post.

There has been a pub on the Lunways site for hundreds of years. It was used by farmers driving sheep from Wales across Hampshire to markets in Portsmouth.

Senior planner John Hearn, recommending approval, told the planning committee last Thursday: "It is one of our priorities to mend the site and find a good use for it. This is a brownfield site and it needs a use."

Mr Hearn said the trust only wanted outline permission and detailed plans would be submitted later. The early planning approval will allow the trustees to complete the purchase.

The hall would be used weekly by up to 100 worshippers and by up to 600 people twice a year.

The pub and outbuildings would be demolished and the single-storey hall built at the back of the site away from Northington Lane and Basingstoke Road.

Mike Cunliffe, an agent for the trust, said: "Everyone agrees something needs to happen to the site."

Two parish councils, Itchen Valley and Northington, objected to the scheme, but Micheldever supported it.

City councillor Robert Johnston said: "The applicants consulted the parish councils. They have gone further than other applicants to allay the fears."