The proposed three-storey replacement above a semi-basement church will be equal to the highest building in the parish if it gets the go-ahead from Arun District Council to contain an updated St Ninian's United Reformed Church.

Only the former Nyetimber Windmill, just to the north along Pagham Road, will match its height.

To the south, the centuries-old St Thomas a' Becket Church next to the harbour is the only other contender as a landmark building.

Pagham's residents have been assured parish councillors will consider the proposals carefully before they make their comments about it to Arun.

Council chairman Cllr Ray Radmall told the annual electors' meeting: "The plan involves the demolition of the hall and the manse at the back and the substitution of a flint tower, the sunken basement of which will be used as a church and also for letting for functions.

"The other storeys will be flats to make the whole thing viable.

"I don't want to hinder the church if it's doing something for the local community, but we will have to look at it as a business development because it has nine flats."

Cllr Sandy Black, the chairman of the parish council's planning committee, said: "We will have to wait to see what the public opinion is on St Ninian's before we voice an opinion.

"We will be listening to what local people have to say."

The lowest floor of the £2m new St Ninian's URC will be partly sunk into the ground. This will form the new area for worship as well as have potential for community uses.

The existing church, built in 1965 with room for 75 worshippers, is intended to become the new church hall.

The 150-capacity current hall, dating from 1968, and a manse bungalow – built three years later – behind it will be demolished to make way for the flint tower.

The design is intended to reflect the Martello Towers further east along the Sussex coastline as well as limiting the effect on the mainly-rural landscape of flats on the site.

The top three floors of the tower will house nine flats. Three will be one-bedroom apartments and six will have two bedrooms.

Architect Alex MacLaren says in a statement with the planning application that providing housing on the church site at the same time as building a new church seems the best way of achieving the church's social, spiritual and commercial aims together.

Creating the church as a tower gives it the smallest silhouette of any structure as viewed from all angles and takes up less space than a building with corners.

"We propose this building is of a modern sustainable form but clad in the traditional and local material of seaside flint pebbles," she states.

The demolition of the existing church hall will open up the site to views from Pagham Road of the farmland to the west.

The entrance to the church will be clearly seen from the road to make it a clear part of the village.

The proposals have been put on display twice in the past year.