A CHURCH is planning a £50,000 extension as part of a project to help vulnerable elderly people.

St John's Church, in Neasham Road, Darlington, wants to transform its vestry to house a lunch club for people in need of support in the Bank Top area.

The revamped facility would also be available for use by local organisations.

The church is putting £10,000 into the project and Bank Top Community Partnership has pledged a further £10,000.

It is hoped that the remaining £30,000 will come from a Community Lottery Fund grant.

The Reverend Mike Dent, the church's new rector, said: "One of the things that we do as a church is outreach into the community, particularly with frail and isolated elderly people.

"In order to offer four hot lunches a week, we need better kitchen facilities, and we need to be able to provide disabled toilet facilities."

He said many of those who would benefit were people who had moved into residential homes to be with a frail spouse but needed more social interaction.

But he said that the whole community could benefit.

"If this does go ahead as we hope, it will mean you are going to have a facility that will benefit many more people," he said.

"We will be quite in line for hiring the hall out and making it pay its way."

Councillor John Williams, Darlington Borough Council leader and ward councillor, told Bank Top Community Partnership: "I think we should support it. This is an opportunity to have community facilities in our ward."

Residents asked if it would be better for the church to join with the Scout hut next door to create a new facility.

One said: "It could end up with a bit of a rift there. You have got the ideal facility at the Scout hut and you could both end up bidding for the same money."

But Mr Dent said the church preferred its own project, adding: "We need to improve the facilities to make it a place that the local community might want to come into."