A NEW £1.4m church is to be built in Guisborough after parishioners won a year-long fight for planning permission.

The new St Paulinus RC Church will replace a 71-year-old, 100-seat building, constructed from breeze blocks, which is too small for the growing community.

The latest round in a planning wrangle was won after parishioners launched a letter-writing campaign to members of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

Coun Brian Hogg, planning committee member, praised parishioners and their opponents, residents of a nearby housing estate, for their "excellent behaviour" at a recent site meeting and committee hearing.

About 150 parishioners, carrying a 15ft banner, stood opposite a small number of local residents.

They were responding to an appeal for support from parish priest Canon Michael Bayldon at Sunday masses.

Solicitor David Fernie, chairman of St Paulinus pastoral parish council, told the D&S Times: "We were organised, in contrast to a year ago when the first site meeting was held when our original application was rejected. Then, 100 objectors turned up and only a few of us."

More than 250 church supporters wrote in to counter a 120-signature petition urging councillors to reject the application.

Mr Fernie said: "We are overjoyed. Now we'll have to raise money as the fund, plus selling our two sites, will still leave a shortfall. Our celebrations will no doubt include a raffle."

Middlesbrough Diocese finance chief Dr Jim Whiston said: "The message from this fight is that, if the parish is determined and the diocese is determined, we will jointly work together to win."

He said plans were redrawn when they were first rejected and the size if the building was reduced. An appeal against the refusal was also turned down and the plans were again refined.

Coun Hogg said: "The building is smaller and the cross, which would have been most visible, is now to be placed on the ground."

Dr Whiston said the cross would still be prominent, showing clearly that it was a Catholic church.

He said a community centre would be included in the plans. Work is due to start on the site, which the church will share with the Catholic primary school, during the school summer holidays, but no completion date has yet been fixed.

Dr Whiston said the diocese would sell sites it owned in Guisborough in Enfield Chase and Park Lane, where the present church stands, to partly cover the cost of the new church.

Nearby residents had complained about the proposed church overlooking their properties and about possible increased traffic.