AN empty betting shop in Bradford city centre will be transformed into a Slovakian restaurant after plans were approved by Bradford Council.

The eatery will be a major expansion of Sala's restaurant on John Street, and will become the biggest restaurant of its kind in the city.

A planning application to convert the former William Hill into a restaurant was submitted by Ladislav Orakov, owner of neighbouring Sala's restaurant and take away earlier this year.

Now the plans have been approved the business can open a much larger restaurant and bar with capacity for 130 customers in the unit, and Mr Orakov says the business will help breath new life into this area of the city.

The frontage of the empty unit will be completely refurbished.

After the Telegraph & Argus reported on the plans being submitted in February, the story was picked up by Slovakian new site Dnes24, which said: "While one restaurant after another goes bankrupt in Slovakia, Slovak gastronomy is surprisingly developing in Bradford, England."

Approving the expansion this week, planning officers said: "The proposed change of use of the existing betting shop would facilitate the creation of jobs, five full time equivalent positions, and support business within the city centre.

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"The proposed change of use will have positive regeneration benefits and help bring additional footfall to this location."

The site lies within a Conservation Area, and planning officers says the existing betting shop "makes a negative contribution" to the area.

Officers said: "The proposed alterations are considered to result in an active frontage that provides a positive visual contribution to the street scene setting."

They added: "In this case limited operating hours are agreed with the agent given that the site of the former Oastler Market is emerging as a potential housing site."

One of the conditions is the business will have to close at midnight.

The Oastler Market building is due to be demolished once the new Darley Street Market opens, with hundreds of homes built on the Oastler site.

After the plans were approved Mr Orakov said: " There are many Europeans in Bradford, so we would like to bring here our tradition and show British people our traditional food and drink.

"We hope it will help the make Bradford city centre more interesting for people to come to.

"I know and I am sure everyone knows that in Bradford it is very hard to set up a business because of fewer people coming to town, so we hope this will help to bring more customers for other business as well."

Popular Slovak dishes include bryndzové halušky (dumplings with sheep's cheese), goulash, and trdelnik (funnel cake).