PLANS to transform a former Wallasey Chinese restaurant into shops and flats have been refused by the council as they would create "substandard living conditions".

Once home to one of Wirral's most popular Chinese restaurants and takeaways also known as the Great Wall, the plans would have turned the site from a restaurant into shops and three self-contained apartments.

But a letter was posted in the Wirral council planning portal on Tuesday announcing the plans for the building had been refused.

In its reason for rejecting the plans, the document said the apartments would provide "insufficient outlook" from the main windows, meaning "substandard living conditions".

It comes after the restaurant on Wallasey Road closed in 2011, and it has been empty ever since.

If proposals had gone ahead, they would have meant flats at the rear – with two on the ground floor and one on the first floor.

The original planning statement from Bryson Architects said: "The site is currently a licensed restaurant with residential dwellings above and to the rear.

"The building has a courtyard to the rear with parking accessed from Torrington Road.

"We believe that undertaking the proposed development will provide additional high quality apartment for future owners."