PLANS for yet another restaurant in Colchester High Street have been submitted, despite current tenants for the site insisting they have no plans to move on.

An application has been lodged to convert the Robert Dyas store in the town centre into an unspecified style of eatery.

But the historic homeware store says it is not moving.

A spokesman for the firm, which is owned by former Dragons Den star Theo Paphitis, said: “Robert Dyas has no plans to relocate from this site.”

The applicant, London-based Skelhurst Limited, submitted the plan to Colchester Council with a decision expected by April 4.

Michelle Reynolds, the chairman of the Colchester Retail and Business Association, said she believed the town centre was coming close to the limit for the number of restaurants it could accommodate with the impeding arrival of Wagamamas, Las Iguanas and Byron Burgers, along with the mooted arrival of Turtle Bay and Walkabout and plans for a food and drink led quarter in Queen Street.

She said:“There are more and more restaurants are coming into town and we must be getting close to a saturation point.

“When that happens the people at the bottom of the pile, who sadly are usually the independent stores, are going to suffer the most.

“It would be a real shame if it Robert Dyas was to close, a big loss because it has been in the High Street as long as I can remember – but it would be better to have a restaurant there than an empty unit.

“There must be a saturation point coming and I think there has to be a balance struck.

“Up until now I would say the balance between food and drink, retail and other things has been about right but I think it is getting close to tipping if the council is not careful.

“There are a lot of restaurants already open and ones on the way which we know are about to open.

“Everybody knew Oasis was going and Byron Burgers were looking at the site but this application has come a bit out of the blue.”

Mrs Reynolds said it was a difficult balancing act for Colchester Council trying to maintain retail space while also attracting big name restaurants.

She said:“The problem for the council is if they do not grant permission or licenses for restaurants then they may look elsewhere, you lose out on the investment and end up with an empty shop.”