WORK to create a new restaurant in Malvern town centre could start by the end of the year.

Last year, a developer was granted two planning permissions to convert 6-8 Belle Vue Terrace, the building between the Unicorn pub and the courtyard housing Robson Ward Kitchens.

One was for a two-storey restaurant and the other a row of shops with mews houses above.

In November, when the restaurant application was granted, the developer, Marlborough-based Tipping Family Trust, was hoping the Pizza Express chain would be interested, but this failed to come to anything.

Spokesman Geoffrey Tipping said they were about to go ahead with the alternative plan for shops and housing when they were approached by a restaurant that was very interested in the building. He would not name the restaurant, except to say that it was a nationally-known name and that work could start by the end of the year.

The building used to be occupied by an office supply shop, florist and dressmaker, which relocated elsewhere on Belle Vue Terrace.