Plans submitted for a new church at Walberton

The plans, submitted by Christian charity River of Living Water, show a new church building with a capacity of up to 340 people on Tokar Industrial Estate off Yapton Lane, Walberton.

Next to the church a 94 space car park is planned, with five accessible spaces and four EV charging spaces, as well as a pick up/drop off area for buses and minibuses.

Planning agents for the charity, Knight Consulting, said they hope to see biodiversity net gain of around 11 per cent, and that impact on nearby residents would be ‘minimal’ due to landscaping and the church’s planned distance from residential boundaries.

Plans state the site is currently mixed use between industrial units and areas used by Yapton Free Church, which secured a retrospective change of use for part of the site in 2022 for church ‘activities’ and to keep a portable building on the site that had been there since 2011/12.

Temporary buildings used as classrooms and meeting rooms on the site will also be incorporated into the church with three classrooms and an office space to be built on the first floor.

A temporary marquee was also given permission near the site for three years in 2023, which planners say will stay until the new church is completed.

Planners say the applicant bought the site in 1999 and has been using it for various community oriented religious activities since – being most recently used as a humanitarian donation collection centre for Ukrainian refugees in 2022.