Addingham is to lose yet another business with the news that the village's fish and chip restaurant is likely to close in September.

The Old Station Fish restaurant, on Main Street, has been serving up plates of cod and chips for 12 years but owners Sandra and David Allott say the time has now come for them to shut up shop.

The couple's fish and chip takeaway will remain open but they have applied for planning permission to convert the restaurant into a flat for their daughter and grandson.

"It was a very hard decision to make. When the time comes it will be very sad," said Mrs Allott.

"It's not because the business isn't working because it's quite a busy business. What it is, we are getting older. We obviously want to take life a bit easier.

"The other problem is that my eldest daughter and my grandson have come back home and they obviously need somewhere to live."

Mrs Allott said her daughter had considered buying a house in the village, but the prices were too high. "I know people will be sad to see the restaurant close and so will we but we have to put ourselves and our family first. We have done a lot of soul searching."

She said visitors had come from far and wide to the restaurant over the last decade. "We've had some lovely customers. We've had people who've come from a long way. Hopefully people will still come and visit us in the takeaway. We'll probably be wrapping up fish and chips there when we are using Zimmer frames!"

If planning permission is granted by Bradford Council the couple intend to close the restaurant - which employs about ten part-time staff - in September after the last of the summer coach party bookings.

Gordon Campbell, chairman of Addingham Parish Council, said: "We are sad to see the restaurant close. This highlights another problem in the village - that there's no affordable accommodation for the young people who want to remain in Addingham close to their families."

He said the parish council had recommended that planning permission for the conversion be granted, although there were concerns about future developments on the adjoining car park.

Don Barrett, a member of Addingham Civic Society, said villagers would miss the restaurant.

"It's been a feature of the village for quite a long time," he said.

"Obviously if it's closing for family reasons it's difficult to criticise. But it's another business which is going out of the village and the village is becoming much more a dormitory and retirement type of village without employment to give it life."