THE future of an historic church in Liss looks to have been secured after councillors gave the go ahead for a two-storey meeting room to be built in its grounds. International Presbyterian Church organisers are taking over the running of St Peter's Church from the Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth. And as part of its plan to renovate the building and retain it as a place of worship, the IPC wants to construct an annexe in the Church grounds for use as a Sunday School and meeting place. The plan was given the nod at a meeting of East Hampshire District Council's planning committee after planning officer Julia Mansi had told members that the building was falling in to disrepair and was on the council's "at risk" list. She added that work on the annexe could only begin once a large proportion of restoration work on the main church building had been completed. Jennifer Gray was in favour of the St Peter's scheme and told her colleagues: "I have always thought that West Liss was like an oasis. I would be thrilled to see it being brought back in to use." Brian Dutton agreed: "Principally, I believe the church will be preserved for another few hundred years." However, the plan did not meet with universal approval. Some councillors felt the size and bulk of the annexe would be overbearing in its setting. And concerns were raised about parking along Church Road where residents had complained that church-users had, in the past, parked across their driveways. Anna James said: "It is massive compared to the side of the church. It is the setting of a listed building and I believe this is being built too close. Approval was given subject to a number of planning conditions such as the adoption of a "green travel plan." This sets out that worshippers would park nearly a mile away and use a minibus service to get to the church. The new annexe, the conditions stated, could not be rented by outside organisations and would only be available for use as a nursery during church services. And Judy Onslow went one step further making a fruitless bid to reject the proposal. She told members: "This is the most beautiful situation - it is total peace and quiet. But what concerns me is that this area is going to be "tidied." "The building is also two storey which I don't agree with – I think the impact on the church will be considerable and I'm going to go for refusal."