THE last building standing in the way of the redevelopment of Dorchester's Charles Street car park is to be demolished.

Consent was given yesterday to the demolition of the former Dorchester Community Church in Acland Road, opposite Waitrose.

But the estimated £250,000 cost of pulling down the building and putting more than 20 car parking spaces on the land, does not include any archaeological investigation.

Town councillors had called for a dig to go ahead because the site is thought to hide Roman and possibly Neolithic remains, including part of a henge-type monument, a section of which had been discovered nearby.

Taking into account the inflated cost of buying the building, helping the church to move to its new home at Poundbury, legal and other fees, each new car parking space will have cost more than £40,000 each by the time they are built.

The church site 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. That scheme has since been dropped with the district council headquarters the only building to be put up on the car park.

Council records show that the authority spent a minimum of £930,000 on acquiring the 0.05 hectare site and helping the church to move.

A shopping development proposed at the time included a new Marks & Spencer store, additional space for Waitrose, other retails units, 67 apartments and 470 underground parking spaces. The site is now being considered for a new covered market area.

The West Dorset planning committee was told on Thursday that there was no archaeological investigation planned because the building was literally going to be cut off at ground level, without disturbing footings or any remains which might lie underground.

Once the building has been removed the existing access to the church site off Acland Road will be closed.

Dorchester councillor Stella Jones asked that the surface of the rest of the car park be improved when the work on the new spaces was taking place.