NIGHTCLUB bosses have gone back to the drawing board over controversial plans to overhaul a Teesside venue.

Leisure firm Lady Joy Limited said the Wesley club in Hartlepool would definitely be refurbished - despite a planning application being withdrawn at the eleventh hour earlier this month.

Area manager Russell Vickers said the company was forced to go back on its plans due to escalating costs.

Architects are now revisiting the idea in the hope of finding cheaper sound proofing solutions.

"It's not dead in the water," said Mr Vickers.

"We could not satisfy planning requirements, so we have had to go back to the drawing board.

"The extent of the conditions of sound proofing was going to be very expensive and made the project commercially non-viable."

The Wesley, in Wesley Square, Hartlepool, closed at the start of this year with £1m plans to overhaul the building and rid it of its poor image.

Police figures showed the club was the worst venue in the town for drink-fuelled violence and underage drinkers.

Lady Joy hoped to give the club a new image which would ultimately attract older clientele and less trouble.

But its plans hit problems when the neighbouring Grand Hotel opposed the application on the grounds that a new disabled access would create more noise.

Hartlepool Borough Council demanded the club, which is a listed building and was a former church, be fully sound-proofed.