Retirement flats could be built on the site of a Darlington sports centre.

Developer McCarthy and Stone has applied to the borough council for permission to build 45 sheltered flats, with accommodation for a resident house manager, where Larchfield Sports Centre presently stands.

The centre, in Larchfield Street, is owned by Darlington College of Technology.

The college has started work on a £34.5m campus, with leisure and sporting facilities, on a brownfield site off Haughton Road.

Funding is coming partly from the sales of the sports centre and the college's existing Cleveland Avenue site, the latter going to developer Charles Church.