A CRUMBLING town centre church that residents want demolished could be maintained at a cost of £145,000.

The distinctive remains of Stockton's Holy Trinity Church have become a feature on one of the main approaches to the town.

But a survey of people living in the town in 2000 found that most people wanted the Grade II-listed building to be demolished.

A feasibility study by Stockton Borough Council has concluded that the most attractive option is to bolster the ruined remains.

Other options suggested in the report include demolishing the building, which would have been opposed by English Heritage, or handing the site over to the Salvation Army to use as a community centre and hall of worship.

The study also looked at spending £1.5m on encasing the ruins in a watertight shell or building a footpath through the building.

It is too expensive to maintain its roofless, skeletal form, while erosion is making the walls unstable and a risk to passers-by.

Nicolas Boyer, museums services manager at Stockton Council, helped compile the study report. It says: "The church was gutted in an arson attack in 1991 which destroyed the roof, leaving the facade and walls as a striking and well-known landmark situated at a gateway route into the town.

"It has the potential to play a key role in the regeneration of the area."

The report conceded that the council will have to raise the cash to carry out which-ever option is finally chosen.

The favourite solution is a plan to stabilise the ruin which would include renovating pinnacles, walls, balustrades and individual stones and repairs.

The future of the church has been debated for years while the ruin has attracted tramps, young drunks and drug takers, upsetting people living in the town's Parkfield area.

The borough council has owned the building, in Yarm Lane, since 1994.

The survey carried out in 2000 to determine the church's future prompted a low response from the public and council bosses thought it may have been unrepresentative.

* The church's future will be discussed at a cabinet meeting which will be held at Stockton Town Hall at 4.30pm, on Thursday.