Romsey'S Bradbeers department store is set to expand in order to meet the demands of its ever-increasing numbers of hungry customers.

The store now attracts 6,000 customers to its shop and 2,000 to its restaurant every week following recent expansions.

But the restaurant has been so busy that a planning application has been lodged with Test Valley Borough Council for an extension to the restaurant's eating area and to its kitchen facilities.

The scheme also includes plans for a function room and a conservatory over an existing stockroom with a rear staircase to the restaurant which already has the necessary facilities for the disabled.

"We already do functions in the evenings and they have gone very well. There is also scope for us to do evening wedding receptions and various parties including staff Christmas parties.

"The additional facilities will help us to cope with the increasing demand in the restaurant and for entertaining in the evening," said store director Greg Davies.

The application is set to go before Test Valley planners in the near future and the company is working on finalising a long-term lease for the use of the property.

If all goes well, work could get under way in the late summer or early autumn and the enlarged restaurant could be in full use in time for the Christmas rush.

On the increased customer numbers, Mr Davies said: "They do underline the value of investing in the business and increasing its benefit to the centre of Romsey overall.

"If people have a nice place where they can enjoy a cup of tea, a coffee or a meal, it is likely that they will stay longer in the town.

"We also have the added benefit that the opening of the ALDI store and its customers' car park add to the overall shopping and parking facilities in the centre of Romsey.

"And in the build-up to Christmas, we found that a lot of people were coming into the town with their shopping lists, having a meal and then making a day of it." The shop's - and the town's - catchment area for shoppers stretched from Andover to the Waterside parishes around Fawley and from Salisbury to Chandler's Ford.