AN appeal has been launched in a bid to overturn a Purbeck council decision to refuse planning permission for a new landmark' church in Swanage on a prominent site at the gateway to the town.

In August last year a plan for the demolition of the existing Emmanuel Baptist church hall and its replacement on the Victoria Avenue site with a church centre, public lavatories and parking went before councillors - and was thrown out.

The appeal will be decided on the basis of written statements. The site, which extends to nearly three- quarters-of-an-acre, is near the Herston cross on the main A351 approach to the resort and on the edge of the town - and is within an area of outstanding natural beauty and next to a conservation area.

On the land is an existing single-storey brick-built chapel, which church authorities want to replace with a larger religious and community building. This would see a range of activities from keep-fit classes to prayer meetings, adult education sessions and language teaching for foreign students. There would be 38 parking spaces.

Councillors rejected a plan for a new chapel on the site four years ago when they decided that the proposed building would be intrusive in the landscape scene and to the Herston conservation area.

Planners said the new scheme's floor footprint was reduced from the last plan - though it was more than double that of the existing chapel - but it was also higher than the previous proposal.

While the later scheme was thought not likely to have the adverse effect on the natural landscape of the earlier proposal, the planners said there remained a lack of coherency between the components of the chapel design'.

Councillors were told planners thought the proposal was neither compatible with its surroundings, nor would it improve their character, appearance and local distinctiveness.