Report into £1m rail restaurant

The old building will now be a chocolate shop

The lack of a heritage railway has been given as the reason why a Shropshire restaurant, which cost £1m in public money, closed.

Porter's restaurant, which operated in an old railway building in Oswestry, by a company called OBT Ltd, closed just after Christmas last year.

The restaurant was to have been the centrepiece of a Heritage Railway.

Oswestry Borough Council appointed three senior councillors to investigate the reasons for the failure.

The council helped to fund the purchase, renovation and operation of the building.

One of the report's authors, Pat Mansfield, said "The station building has cost well over £1m of public money to fund the purchase, renovation and operation of the building."

He believes the wait for a steam railway service to be reinstated was the main reason for the closure of Porter's.

He also said the unresolved future of a five acre site at the side of the railway building was another factor.

Plans remain underway to restore a steam railway to the town.