A DALES church has been granted permission for a £45,000 modernisation project by an ecclesiastical court.

Judge Simon Grenfell, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, has ruled that St Andrew's Church, in Aysgarth, Swaledale, should be allowed to remove some pews, create a disabled ramp, raise the nave floor and install a moveable altar.

In his judgement, which was issued yesterday, he said the church had taken the correct steps to consult the local community and described the plans as "an imaginative, yet comparatively modest, project".

He added: "It is a liturgically sound proposal, which will come to be accepted by many, if not all.

"I have been impressed that this project is borne of a genuine intention to move forward the way in which worship is conducted."

The application has already received the backing of the Diocesan Advisory Committee, a body appointed to take independent judgements on all applications for the reordering of church buildings, but was referred to the chancellor of the diocese following objections.

A consistory court hearing on the project took place in St Andrew's Church on October 22.