MONKTON Elm Garden Centre plans to expand its restaurant as part of a "masterplan" to "protect its future".

The garden centre has proposed an expansion of its Elm Tree restaurant, with additional seating and a more "spacious" offering — which it states is "vital to the success of the wider site".

An outdoor roof extension could be added to the garden centre's courtyard to create a larger outdoor covered seating area.

Bi-fold doors could be added to the restaurant's walls to provide "an inside/outside feeling" for those enjoying a meal, the plans propose.

The planning application was submitted by Pleydell Smithyman on the garden centre's behalf on July 19, detailing the "first step" in its phased long-term plan to "rebalance" the business.

It states: "One of the main drivers behind the proposals is the need to try to ‘weatherproof’ the business.

"Horticultural businesses are traditionally ‘fair weather’ and trade is very dependent upon good weather, particularly during the garden centre peak trading period of March-June."

The application also mentions the pressure garden centres are under "to encourage customers to visit their site rather than shop online".

It added that offering a bigger restaurant provision would encourage "customers to visit all year round".

Monkton Elm Garden Centre was once a "successful tomato nursery" run by David and Luella Bellman. In the last 40 years, it has expanded into a modern garden centre and is still run by the Bellman family.

Now the garden centre expects to face new challenges as plans for the urban expansion of Monkton Heathfield are in the works, referred to as Monkton Heathfield Phase 2 (MH2), the application explains.

The application states: "Land immediately to the north west of the garden centre and to the east across the A38 is the subject of a current planning application to develop 1,450 houses, employment land, a through school, a district centre with local shops, a park and bus facility and a new eastern relief road."

It adds that this development will "wrap around" the garden centre, and "dramatically change the setting of the long-established garden centre".

The application states that expanding the restaurant is the "first step in a phased long-term masterplan to secure the future of Monkton Elm Garden Centre."

Currently, the garden centre employs 111 people, if plans are approved the site would hire an additional two full-time and two part-time employees.

It adds: "This masterplan has been developed over time and will represent a wider repositioning of the business to rebalance it, taking into account changes in the garden centre market and customer expectations and upcoming changes in the local area, in particular the impact of MH2."