A RESIDENTS' group has vowed to step up its attempts to transform a doomed school into a community centre.

The North Road Community Partnership will develop a business plan to help support its proposals for the Rise Carr Primary School buildings.

The school, in Eldon Street, will close this month, and residents nearby are concerned about what will happen to the listed building once it has closed.

Youth provision in the area has been criticised in recent months, and the partnership wants to tackle the problem by using the building as a youth and community cen- tre.

The group wrote a letter to Darlington Borough Council's director of children's services, Margaret Asquith, in May, but said they were disappointed with the "neutral" reply.

They will write again to stress they would like the building to be used for activities to involve the North Road area, and hope to talk to other community partnerships in Darlington for advice from groups who have made similar applications.

Community development worker Morvyn Sanderson said the group had agreed to create a plan to support its application.

He said: "The group thought it would be appropriate to write again (to the council) explaining some of the activities they wanted to use the building for, and state that it would be for more than a youth venue.

"The development plan would be helpful for the partnership to clarify the intentions of what the community centre could achieve, but would also be an advantage if the group needed to apply for funding and for discussion with the council."