PUB chain J D Wetherspoon has bought a Lancaster nightclub and plans to open two pubs in the city centre, The Citizen can reveal.

The rapidly growing chain has purchased Springs Nightclub on Spring Garden Street, subject to contract, and is hoping to receive permission to convert it into a Wetherspoons pub.

They have already received planning permission for a large pub with retail units on North Road and construction work is expected to start soon.

A spokesman for J D Wetherspoons said: "We're opening 90 pubs a year around the country and have been very successful wherever we've been. Lancaster is a university city and so far has had no Wetherspoons pubs. We've got one site on North Road and I can confirm that we have bought Springs Nightclub. They are at opposite ends of the city so hopefully Lancaster will go from having no Wetherspoons pubs to having two. Structurally and design wise they will be very different. But operationally they will be the same."

The local authorities have expressed some disquiet about the burgeoning number of licensed premises in the city centre and some have said that any more new licences would be resisted.

But the Wetherspoons chain, which tries to attract a range of customers, has an exemplary record and would be difficult to turn down.