A POPULAR Hedge End church is on the threshold of having one of the biggest buildings of worship in the south.

If it gets the go-ahead from Eastleigh councillors on Monday the King's Community Church will be able to spread its wings in spectacular fashion Planners are recommending that the Hedge End, West End, Botley Local Area Committee should give its blessing to a proposal for a 1,300 seat auditorium.

Currently the church is bursting at the seams and it is not unusual for more than 600 worshippers to fill the pews for a Sunday service.

As well as the huge auditorium there will be a foyer, welcome and youth rooms, crèche, and office accommodation.

Car parking at the 17- acre site in Sovereign Place in Upper Northam Close will be extended by an extra 190 spaces to cater for up to 316 cars and there would be landscaping on nearby land.

In a report to the local area committee, planning officer Dawn Errington says: "The development would assist in providing further community uses and facilities in Hedge End."

Mrs Errington says that church leaders want to run a single Sunday service within one large auditorium rather than a series of two or more separate services.

She says it is common for urban churches to hold several services on a Sunday due to limits in capacity. But at the King's Community Church there is physical scope to extend.

The planning application has been referred to the local area committee because it is for a major development in a strategic gap which makes it potentially controversial.

Councillors will hear that there have been eight letters of objections, including concerns over the scale and magnitude of development in strategic gap and the impact on traffic.

Those in favour say it will benefit the community and meet demand and that the scheme is well designed.