AMENDED plans for a £45m shopping mall in the North-East could result in a church being demolished.

Planning permission for the new Queen Street shopping complex in Darlington was given last year, but it did not include the former United Reformed Church in Union Street.

Now the developer, St Martin's Property Investments, has applied to Darlington Borough Council to expand the original plans to incorporate the land owned by the church.

Although the firm would not be drawn on whether it was proposing to demolish the church to make way for the project, Darlington Civic Trust has seen the plans and says the church is not included.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: "This is another example of insensitive development that bulldozes existing buildings rather than designing a development which incorporates and complements them."

She said the trust would be asking for an architectural assessment to be carried out.

A spokesman for the United Reformed Church confirmed they were negotiating with St Martin's over a sale of the building and land, but said the church was not a listed building.

Ian Leafe, owner of Fisher Carpets, which is based in the church, said he would object to the new proposals unless a deal could be struck with St Martin's to secure his business.

He said his company had been based in the church since 1982, but he feared the shopping mall could damage the business.

"All we want is to be looked after so our business can continue in the centre of Darlington," he said.

A spokeswoman for St Martin's would not comment on whether the church would be demolished as part of the expansion.

"Following discussions with a number of major retailers who have shown interest in our plans, the scheme has evolved to take further account of the requirements of retailers who have a demand for large space stores," she said.

"The revised application therefore proposes the provision of two large stores rather than the one which had originally been envisaged."

She refused to name the retailers considering occupying the two largest stores within the development, because negotiations were taking place.