A SOUTHAMPTON church can now keep its doors open as late as city nightclubs.

God’s Mercy Revival Ministries, which operates from Cannon Street, in Shirley, will now be allowed to keep its premises open between 9am and 3am every Friday night.

It comes after it successfully applied to Southampton City Council to extend its hours and months after plans to change the centre from offices into a place of worship and community centre.

The church has members living across the country and it applied to increase its opening hours in order to have its quarterly meetings run into the night.

Adegoke John, one of the elders in the church, said: “We wanted to extend our hours so there is no pressure on our members to get to meetings late and it means that when meetings start late there is no pressure to finish them early.

"Many of our members work throughout the UK in London and Newcastle so by the time they get here it is very late.

“We want to make this Shirley branch of the church our spiritual home so to be allowed to open later will help this.”

God’s Mercy Revival Ministries is an Apostolic and Charismatic Christian family church.

According to its website it is made up of people from diverse cultural backgrounds who have found a place to belong within the family of God.

Within the successful proposal, the church will also stay open between 9am and 9.30pm on Monday until Thursday, as well as 8am and 8.30pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Mr John added: “Having the building in Shirley is a pivotal part of allowing the church to preach to the people about what Jesus Christ is and getting people together.

"It’s about creating an impact within the community and caring for the homeless.”