AN 80-SEAT chain restaurant which opened less than a year ago has closed down.

Mother Hubbard’s fish and chip restaurant opened in Blackburn in October 2015 in Preston New Road.

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The restaurant, which is run by Blackburn-based company Euro Garages, whose core business is motorway petrol forecourts and concessions, has not been open for business for around a fortnight.

The company has said the restaurant had been closed ‘indefinitely’ due to ‘adverse trading conditions’.

It opened after renovations to the interior of the building which was once Mr Fu’s Chinese Restaurant and later a Mahmood’s curry restaurant.

The 2,200 sq ft restaurant, at New Park House, had seating capacity for 80 people.

Euro Garages said around 20 people, in both full and part-times roles, worked there.

The restaurant was planned after a successful trial of the fish and chip shop at the M61 Rivington South Service Station, which opened in August last year.

Euro Garages then decided to press ahead with the Blackburn franchise.

On opening, the restaurant was billed as ‘a traditional family-style fish and chips and aims to bring the experience of a seaside resort locally to our town’.

A Euro Garages spokesman said: “Due to adverse trading conditions, we have reluctantly taken the decision to close the Mother Hubbard’s site in Preston New Road, Blackburn.

“Our current focus is on supporting our employees affected by the closure and offering them alternative positions within the Euro Garages group.”

Established in 1972, the first Mother Hubbard’s was opened in Scarborough in 1972.

The Blackburn franchise was the first to be opened in Lancashire.

Regular customer Dave Floyd is disappointed to see Mother Hubbard’s close.

He said: “It was good when it first opened.”