Plans for a £130,000 makeover at a Maldon church have been unveiled.

The scheme involves a major refurbishment inside the United Reformed Church, on Market Hill, to help bring it into the new millennium.

Now that English Heritage has given permission for the listed building to be changed, the work is set to be carried out between April and June.

The church will close and services will be held in the school buildings in front of it.

The pews, which seat more than 850 people, will be ripped out and replaced with chairs while the pulpit area will also go.

A raised platform with moveable furniture will replace it.

Minister, the Rev Michael Burrell, said the aim of the scheme was to make the Georgian church, which dates from 1802, more comfortable and functional.

A welcome area, separate from the rest of the church, is also to be built at the entrance of the church.

"We are not forgetting its heritage but for me it is a church first," the minister added. "We cannot leave it as a museum to the past. The welcome area will mean we can have bible classes or other things going on. It will be far more practical."

Some of the money has already been gathered through fundraising events with the remainder coming from grants and loans.

Many of the members of the congregation have had a hands on involvement in the plans, which have taken more than two years to come into fruition. Church members Michael Cable and Clifford Patten are the project manager and architect on the project.

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