Crawley Council has also backed down over demands that all work stop at the controversial Apple Tree Farm site.

On Friday, the Gurjar Hindu Union (GHU) behind the £4million temple project agreed to up parking at the complex to 250 spaces. The climbdown came after an application to reduce parking to just 99 spaces was thrown out by Crawley Borough Council last month.

A group of furious residents have fought plans for the 14.5 metre-high mandir temple and community centre, which is currently being built.

They claimed the cut in parking spaces would have caused chaos on nearby residential streets.

Bharat Lukka, spokesman for the GHU said: "We have submitted a revised planning application."

Work is now continuing, despite the council calling for the union to halt progress after the planning refusal last month.

Mr Lukka said the work was being done according to an earlier planning application granted last year.

Crawley Council leader Bob Lanzer said there were no plans to slap a 'stop notice' on the temple.

"A stop notice would have been contradictory in that it would have wrongly overturned a planning permission granted in 2007," he said.

The union has agreed to stop work on the parts of the parts of the temple now under dispute with the council, but repeated its vow to open in August next year.