A CHURCH which has stood in the way of Dorchester's town centre re-development could soon be demolished to make way for a car park.

The Dorchester Community Church in Acland Road, opposite Waitrose, was bought by West Dorset District Council at double its market price when the council was determined to press ahead with a new shopping scheme on the Charles Street car park.

The local planning committee is now being asked to agree the demolition of the building – creating more than 20 car parking spaces on the site.

Time will be allowed during the process for an archaeological investigation. A former Roman bathhouse lies under the nearby Wollaston Field car park and other Roman and pre-Roman remains are thought likely to be under the site.

Council records show that the authority spent a minimum of £930,000 on the purchase of the 0.05 hectare site, together with giving financial help for the church to move to its new home adjoining Damers School at Poundbury.

A report put before councillors at the time claimed that the church had a market value of £350,000 although because the site had “special significance” to the council its value was actually £700,000. An additional £205,000 was agreed to help pay for the new building at Poundbury with an extra £25,000 to meet professional fees.

At the time the shopping development being proposed included a new Marks and Spencer store, additional space for Waitrose, other retails units, 67 apartments and 470 underground parking spaces.

The only thing which has ever been built on the Charles Street car park site since development plans were first mooted in the mid 1970s is the South Walks House headquarters for the district council. The council itself will disappear in April 2019 to be replaced by the new unitary Dorset Council which is likely to use the building as its administrative headquarters together with meeting rooms.

Ward councillor Alistair Chisholm has previously said he would like to see a community dig at the site, undertaken by volunteers and supervised by a professional archaeologist.

“It is very likely that further neolithic post holes could be found together with the Roman and later medieval layers of the town’s story. At a time when the Town Council have agreed that more should be made of our long and fascinating story and Dorchester’s many and varied literary, legal and royal associations, now would be a good time,” he said earlier this year.

“Our future does not lie entirely in our past, but it is high time the intriguing evidence of that past was treated with the respect it deserves and not viewed as an awkward impediment to development. That much needed sea change could and should start with a proper investigation of what lies under the Community Church site.”