A WEYMOUTH town centre church has been granted planning permission to create a new accessible entrance.

The Grade 2 listed Parish Church of St Mary’s in St Mary Street, which was built in 1817, has steps from each of the three doors on the main entrance with the central, door having a handrail one side.

Architects acting for the church say that because of the difference in height a very large ramp would be needed to allow disabled access to the central entrance and it would also ruin the look of the building: ”The central entrance is also visually the most significant and the steps are part of the character of the building, and so removing the steps to the central entrance would have a significant detrimental impact on the special character of the building,” said their report.

Instead the church is to create an accessible entrance to the northernmost door on the western front where a smaller ramp would be less prominent. The changes will mean altering the door to open outwards with new wrought iron handrail and a push-pad to activate the door.

Ward councillor Jon Orrell had offered his support to the proposal “I attended a classical music concert this week and observed a wheelchair user having great difficulty negotiating the main steps. The proposed entrance is not used and appears mainly to provide symmetry to the facade, which has a central main door and two identical but largely unused doors either side. It is high time that this building was made accessible to people who are disabled,” he said.

Weymouth town council had also supported the application with no objections from Historic England.