A DARWEN church is expecting to know by the end of the week whether it can get permission to have a floodlit cross in a bid to stop vandals and intruders.

St James Church in Winterton Road has been hit by a spate of trouble with trespassers and vandals.

Vicar at the church, the Reverend John Faraday is hoping for permission to floodlight the cross which is currently on the church.

He said: "We have to go through the planning process with the Church of England and we also need advice on whether we need to approach the local authority for permission for the cross -- if we do it will take longer."

He said they had a general problem with vandalism at the church and that most of the day it was locked except when organised events were on.

He added: "Of course it would be nice to have it open all the time but sadly we can't do that."

In September St Peter's Church in Church Bank Street in Darwen town centre was the first in Lancashire to install CCTV to try to put a stop to the amount of attacks it was having.

At the time Area Dean at the church the Rev Kevin Arkell said the church had been having "enormous problems" and, during the six-and-half years he had been there it had suffered thousands of pounds of damage.

The Rev Kevin Arkell said that the CCTV system was proving successful.

He said: "It has been going all right -- we don't really have any major problems at the moment and we are going to keep the cameras.

"But it's difficult to say that crime it has stopped altogether as it seems to come in waves."

Local security companies are funding the cameras.