PLANS have been lodged to turn a well-known furniture shop into a restaurant.

Pattens Furniture is looking to move out of one of its two buildings in High Street, Wolstanton, and has put it up for sale or rent.

One potential occupant wants to open an Indian restaurant in the prominent two-storey building, which is currently Pattens Bed and Cook Centre, and a change of use application has been lodged with Newcastle Borough Council.

If the plans go ahead, Pattens will continue to operate out of its remaining site, two doors down from the Bed and Cook Centre.

Family-run Pattens was set up by Pamela Patten and her daughter Katie in 1995, and expanded into its second premises two years later.

Since then it has become one of Wolstanton's best known shops, and it currently employs four people on its second site.

The proposed restaurant would employ up to 10 people, and will be open from late afternoon to late evening.

Nearby business owners and residents have raised concerns about the lack of parking spaces in the area around the High Street, especially in the evenings when the restaurant would be open.

Marianne Pointon, owner of Celebrations Balloons, in the High Street, said: "I'll be glad if it isn't another takeaway. We have enough of those already and we're always getting litter from them in our doorway.

"Parking could be a problem though. Residents complain about people parking in their streets as it is."

Chris Bourne, aged 40, who lives in nearby Peel Street, said: "I think this would be a terrible idea. Our street is full of kebab boxes as it is.

"I've tried to get the council to do something about it.

"Parking is already horrendous around here, with people who work in the village parking in these side streets."

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said: "We certainly wouldn't want another eating place. We've already got the takeaways and the pub across the road. I just don't think there's any need for a restaurant.

"The parking would get a lot worse if there were people coming here in the evening to go to the restaurant."

Mrs Patten declined to comment on the application until it was determined.