COUNCILLORS will consider plans to turn a purpose-built restaurant at Aldeburgh into a home when they meet next week.Hannaway Investments Ltd has applied for permission to convert the Waterfront Gastro Bar at The Fisherman Station, Oakley Square.

COUNCILLORS will consider plans to turn a purpose-built restaurant at Aldeburgh into a home when they meet next week.

Hannaway Investments Ltd has applied for permission to convert the Waterfront Gastro Bar at The Fisherman Station, Oakley Square.

The restaurant, currently closed, was built out of an existing building in 2000, but suffered setbacks.

Building work came to a halt in October 2000 when Suffolk Coastal District Council served a stop notice.

Developers Church Investments Ltd were at loggerheads with planners over issues such as the removal of areas of wall from the old structure. They reached agreement and work resumed.

Then in August 2001, it fell victim to freak weather conditions. It was just one of many premises to suffer flooding after areas of Suffolk suffered torrential soakings.

There were also teething problems including personnel changes and problems with faulty equipment.

However, it was given an excellent review for its food and wine in September 2001, when an East Anglian Daily Times writer visited it to find out what it was like.

In 2001, its executive chef was selected as a finalist in the Seafood Chef of the Year competition run by the publican newspaper. But it later closed, and has not re-opened.

Suffolk Coastal District Council's development control sub-committee will consider the proposals to turn it into a home when it meets on Wednesday .

Planners are recommending that they are given authority to determine the application and approve it subject to conditions.

Aldeburgh town council and the highways authority want there to be a parking area in the yard, but planners said such a request was not considered possible to justify given the reduction in demand that would result from the restaurant being used as a single dwelling.

Councillors will be told that although the building lies within the town centre, it does not lie within "the main central core" of the town where there may be concern about the loss of commercial ground floor space.