A smart Hereford restaurant and bar has been given the go-ahead to build an extension to accommodate more diners.

Cotto on Broad Street planned the development on “dead utilitarian space” to the rear of the building, previously used for car parking and rubbish.

Serving “authentic Italian cooking with a modern twist”, the restaurant opened in 2019, just before the pandemic struck, and despite this is now “attracting man people from outside the county”, its application said.

The extra dining space is “vital to help sustain the business model” and would allow it to take on more staff.

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The timber-clad outbuilding with roof windows will be accessed from a corridor and steps up from the main dining area. It will also house a pizza oven and bar, and have fire doors onto the rear car park.

Planning officer Clive Lloyd said the design had been amended in light of comments from council building conservation and archaeology officers, and would now “satisfactorily preserve the setting of adjacent listed buildings”.

Central Hereford ward councillor Jeremy Milln considered it “a poor quality development, which fails to complement or enhance the conservation area”, but said he would be happy to leave the decision to permit to Mr Lloyd.

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