SOLAR panels should be fixed to Winchester Cathedral and other places of worship, a Hampshire MP has said.

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for South-ampton Test, said public buildings and businesses played a central role in the energy economy and had to do their bit to tackle climate change.

He said: "Getting public buildings to generate their own energy and use it much more efficiently is very important. You can use different renewable technology for different buildings. I would like to see solar panels and ground source heat pumps used by Winchester Cathedral."

Dr Whitehead's comments follow a call from the Government for churches and cathedrals to consider putting solar panels and wind turbines on their roofs to cut carbon emissions.

Earlier this summer then environment minister Ian Pearson, speaking to church leaders at Lambeth Palace, admitted the sight of hi-tech energy generators strapped to some of the country's most cherished landmarks might "raise a few eyebrows". But he added: "I'd love to see solar panels on church halls, biomass boilers in church schools, and maybe in future we should be thinking about how, by using microgeneration, cathedrals can help produce energy as well as use it."

A Church of England spokesman said: "It is up to churches what they do with their buildings but we are certainly encouraging them to think about their carbon footprint and ways of reducing it, including microgeneration."

The Government's call for Church leaders to do their bit for the environment was also a call for them to protect the future of their own historic buildings.

Mr Pearson said extreme weather brought about by rising global temperatures meant cathedrals "must start adapting if they are still to be standing a century from now".

The Government is convinced that buildings will have to be better able to cope with the higher temperatures, flooding, drought and stormy weather that climate change will bring.

Officials, citing a study by the Environ-ment Agency, are concerned that Winchester Cathedral, along with other places of worship in low-lying areas, "may be at risk from flash flooding because of heavy rainfall".

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: "Winchester Cathedral is located near to the River Itchen and one end of the building is located in an area that is at some risk from river flooding."

In the winter of 2000/1 the cathedral's crypt was hit by groundwater flooding, when persistent rainfall caused the water table to rise significantly. The Agency said: "The crypt, because of its location underneath the cathedral, is much more likely to experience flooding of this nature."