A THREE-YEAR planning battle has ended with the all-clear for the bulldozers to move in and knock down a Roman Catholic church on the edge of the New Forest.

The Church already has permission to demolish the large St Michael's Church at Hythe and build 25 flats in its place.

But as part of a scheme to provide the Hythe and Fawley areas with one big church, it also needed to replace the smaller St Bernard's Church at Holbury, near Fawley, with residential development. Services are at present continuing at both churches.

Plans for bungalows at St Bernard's were rejected by New Forest District Council in 1997 and a similar scheme foundered in January this year, with councillors and residents protesting that community and play group facilities would be lost.

Yesterday, however, the Church went back to the council's development control sub-committee where an officer's report revealed that a survey of facilities showed that the Fawley area was adequately catered for.

"It could be difficult to sustain a case that in general terms the community's needs could not continue to be met even if this site were no longer available," said the report.

On behalf of the Catholic Church, planning consultant Martin Hendry said: "The loss of the church itself is not a matter for planning. It is a matter for the diocese and it will be closed and moved."

The sub-committee also heard that there were 81 letters representing the views of 126 parishioners who supported the scheme and just nine letters of objection, although Fawley councillor Barbara Maynard pointed to a covenant requiring that the site should be occupied by a church.

After the revised plans for St Bernard's had been approved by nine votes to three, parish priest Father Ray Lyons said: "We are obviously relieved and grateful that we can move forward with our development proposals.

"This is the end of the beginning and we must move forward in looking for an appropriate site."