A DISUSED toilet block on Hoylake promenade is to be demolished to make way for a seaside café with an alcohol licence.

Gary Watson plans to set up the “Pebbles café” and says it will be opened later this year. The block, at the end of Trinity Road, was declared surplus to requirements by Wirral Council in 2005.

Mr Watson, who owns “Tanskey’s café” opposite the Marine Lake in West Kirby, submitted his plan for that same year.

The original proposal was to keep the block and extend it as a café with a viewing deck.

But following a site survey by Mr Watson’s architect, the plan was altered to allow demolition. Mr Watson, a former policeman, told the Globe: “I want to create in Hoylake exactly what I have in West Kirby. “Just recently the beach in Hoylake was voted among the best in the Northwest. A beach side cafe is exactly what it needs.

“When I submitted the plan, English Nature gave us a rough time. They were concerned migrating birds would be threatened by the building work. “But the amended scheme addressed their concerns.

“We’re also doubling the size of the building so birdwatchers can still come and enjoy their hobby.”

Planning permission was granted in December and contains conditions restricting opening hours and when the building work can be carried out.

The opening times of the café are seasonally restricted; from April 1 to August 31, the hours will be from 8am until 9.30pm, and from September 1 to March 31, they will be from 8am to dusk.