BUILDERS are to sound-proof a church so it won’t disturb revising students.

They are doing the work at a development in Bournemouth.

It will house a potentially “unique” combination – a 750-place church auditorium and 588 students.

The church will be on the ground floor of A-Block. However worshippers don’t want to hear drinking games, and revising students don’t want to hear songs of praise.

Technical director Eric Pritchard said: “There will be an acoustic box around Citygate Church.

“We have all been working together on noise alleviation so that the church doesn’t disturb the students above.”

The development is called Dorchester House and is on the site of the former B&Q on Holdenhurst Road, opposite the railway station.

Citygate Church had an agreement to buy the site but finance was a concern and it came to a deal with builder Watkin Jones.

“I don’t know if it’s a unique combination, but it could be,” said Jim Salway, chairman of the church directors.

Watkin Jones on Monday celebrated putting the first roof on one of the four main six-storey blocks.

It will be the largest student accommodation block in Dorset when completed in June 2012.

Church staff have estimated the cost at £25 - £30million. Bournemouth was 2,600 places short of student accommodation when plans were passed in 2009.

Knightsbridge Student Housing will buy the block when it is finished and market the rooms under the Student Housing Company.

Chief executive officer Bob Crompton said Bournemouth University was co-operating but had not yet guaranteed to take rooms.

He added: “Bournemouth has been such a successful university, accommodation can’t keep up with demand.

“And from a planning perspective, if you keep students together in the town centre, it frees up homes for families.”

The rooms could also be let to students from the Arts University College, the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic and the language schools.