A VILLAGE restaurant has been granted a bigger foothold in the community with a podiatry clinic set to be placed on its menu.

A planning application has been agreed by Scottish Borders Council for the sub-division of the existing Seasons restaurant, at Main Street in Gattonside, to accommodate a separate commercial unit serving Melrose Foot Care.

The applicants, Mr and Mrs Mckie, have successfully run the restaurant for a number of years and have enjoyed being part of the local community.

Now they are planning to alter the eatery to offer a “smaller and more intimate dining” experience , which will result in more space being freed up for the foot clinic to move into.

In her report approving the application, Julie Hayward, SBC lead planning officer, says: “The application site is located within a residential area. The building is currently used as a restaurant and the proposal would subdivide it, providing a smaller restaurant and Class 1A office (financial, professional and other services). This would be a small scale use comprising of two consulting rooms.

“It is considered that  the proposal would not be out of keeping with the established use of this part of Gattonside.

“The proposal would see the restaurant use halved and an office for professional services formed. It in unlikely that this type of use would generate noise nuisance or result in increased activity at the premises during the day that would harm residential amenities or be any worse than a restaurant use.”

A report submitted with the application, from Selkirk-based Stuart Davidson Architecture, explains:  “With the introduction of two of their daughters within the business the applicants are keen to continue to provide the same high quality service as well as develop Seasons further including relaxed ‘brunch’ sittings to compliment evening sittings.

“Within the revised model for the business their focus is on smaller and more intimate dining, meaning that the current restaurant which can accommodate 50 covers within a single sitting is now too large for their aims.

“To ensure that Seasons remains within he heartbeat of the village it is proposed to sub-divide the existing property to form a separate commercial unit that allows Melrose Foot Care to expand their existing services and compliment their current properties in Melrose and Selkirk.”

The plan is to half the current number of covers as part of the development, in turn allowing the formation of two consulting rooms for Melrose Foot Care to accommodate two patients per visit with a maximum of three staff at any one time, “creating a significant reduction on vehicular movements”.

The building acted as a village Post Office between 1961 and 1972 and changed to a restaurant in 1991.

Melrose Foot Care currently operates from within Boots in the town’s Market Square.