A POPULAR restaurant on Portland could close its doors to customers and be transformed into homes, under new plans revealed today.

L and O’s Bistro, in Weston Road, is locally known as one of the best restaurants in the area, due to its traditional and contemporary dishes from home and abroad.

The Bistro currently has a four-and-a-half rating out of five on TripAdvisor, with reviews describing it as an "excellent local Bistro" and a "little gem" which offers "delicious carveries".

The restaurant continues to serve food during the second national lockdown, offering roasts, game pie, jerk chicken and desserts for takeaway.

But it appears the popular Bistro could close after a planning application was submitted to Dorset Council to convert and change the use of the ground floor restaurant and above accommodation into two dwellings.

The plans state that its tenants and restaurant owners, Ozzie and Lin Stainfort do not want to extend the restaurant’s lease as they wish to retire. It is understood that the lease of the restaurant has expired, but Mr and Mrs Stainfort have an open-ended agreement with the property's owner that they can decide when they wish to finish.

Within the plans, the application has cited a general decline in people eating out in restaurants as well as the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the hospitality industry.

The application explains how the property used to be a shop and post office before its current owners successfully converted the site into a restaurant in 1998. The restaurant became L and O's Bistro in 2005.

Dorset Echo: How the restaurant and property would be changed.How the restaurant and property would be changed.

The application states: “I was approached by the current owners, Mr and Mrs Vaughan, as the current lease of L and O’s Bistro runs out towards the latter part of this year/early next year and they are not wishing to continue due to retirement.

“Factored into this, less people over the last few years are eating out regularly - only as special occasions - reducing profit margins.

“Also since the problems encountered this year with Covid-19, the restaurant trade has been severely impacted.

“We discussed the potential use of the building and whether flats or dwelling houses would be better suited to the property.”

The plans show that the property’s frontage would be amended to install new door and windows, which would be in keeping with properties in the area.

The existing commercial kitchen and toilet areas would be removed in order to form the ground floor accommodation and also form an external area to both properties.

The application states the property is 'within a very sustainable area" with a bus route, shops and a supermarket nearby. It adds given the need for housing in the area, the application should be approved by Dorset Council.

Comments on the application are invited via the Dorset Council website. Search for application number WP/20/00709/FUL.