A BAR and restaurant built in an old village hall opens next week.

Retreat, which currently has branches in Heaton and Adlington, will open its Bromley Cross venue on Monday December 10.

It has been built in the old village hall, in Darwen Road and will feature the same menu as the Heaton site.

The building dates back to 1888, but two years ago it was announced it would close along with the Birtenshaw Methodist Church next door.

The closure of the buildings was blamed on a dwindling congregation size and lack of people to carry out jobs at the site.

The 143-year-old church was also demolished in August to make way for the restaurant's car park, despite local interest groups campaigning against it.

In October, developers of the Retreat restaurant were also told they must pay up to £5,000 for a consultation into double yellow lines on nearby Welsey Street.

Roy Potter, representing the developers, said the opening of the new restaurant would have no impact on traffic and parking in surrounding streets because of the carpark set to be built on the site.

He added: “We don’t consider that it would help the surrounding area because we will not create any more traffic and our service is done entirely on site.”

However, councillors disagreed with this argument, saying that the original application to knock down the church was put in place because of assurances about traffic management, made to ensure residents would not be negatively impacted.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/retreatbromleycross.