PLANS to demolish a Victorian building in the West End of Darlington have been dropped after a public outcry warned that the area's architectural history was being lost.

Local people, architects and conservation groups voiced concern over Darlington Building Society's plans to demolish the Chesterfield building, in Stanhope Road, and replace it with flats.

The scheme has been withdrawn from Darlington Borough Council and replaced with a new scheme which involves leaving the Chesterfield building and the existing Chorley Cottage untouched.

Under the new plans, the car park area behind the building, which faces on to Scarth Street, will become a three-storey block of 12, two-bedroom flats.

There will be a courtyard area with scattered car parking in the tree-lined area between the flats.

Vehicle access to the parking area will be from the existing entrance in Stanhope Road, but no spaces are being taken away from the present buildings.

After the initial plans were announced last year, residents were worried about the destruction of an attractive old building.

The Council for the Protection of Rural England warned the town's heritage was being eroded.

Concerns were voiced after a previous planning application for flats was granted for the wooded grounds of Greystones, a Victorian villa in Carmel Road North. The building society said it had listened to fears and found an alternative.

Marketing and communications manager David Copland said: "We have listened to what the residents have said and reacted accordingly.

"We have actually taken Chorley Cottage out of the equation completely, and the new application doesn't involve the Chesterfield building at all."

Keith Ryder, of WS Atkins Consultants, said there would be a central feature in the courtyard area.

The land is owned by the building society, which left the Chesterfield building when it moved into its new edge-of-town headquarters.

Darlington College of Technology had occupied the building for some time, but decided not to renew its lease last year.

Architects are now being asked to look at the building and make proposals for a future use.