PLANS to open a specialist fish restaurant to attract more customers to a fishery has angered its neighbours.

Curley’s Fishery at Wallsuches Reservoir, Horwich, has applied for a music and alcohol licence.

Planning permission was granted in December 2007 for a permanent building to house a tackle shop, classroom, baliff’s office and flat and to replace the temporary cafe which has been in place since 2003.

Steve Kershaw, owner of the business, hopes the building will be ready to open early next year.

He wants to sell wine and bottled beers to customers at the restaurant, which will specialise in fish dishes.

And he says the music licence is for a baby grand piano to enhance the dining experience.

The restaurant will be able to seat 85, and will include 200-year-old pews from a Manchester synagogue which Mr Kershaw picked up from a reclamation yard.

He said: “The place is going to look fantastic when it is finished.

“We have found when open in the evening it can be hard to keep the customers because there are pubs across the road and people want to have a glass of wine.

“This is not about making lots of noise and jumping up and down—that would be a complete contradiction to the fishing. We have no intention of turning this into a night club.”

The licence would allow alcohol and indoor music until 9pm.

One nearby resident, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s totally unacceptable.

It’s a conservation area, but there’ll be alcohol and music on a quiet country lane late at night.

“It doesn’t sound good. I imagine quite a lot of people will be quite concerned about it.”

Helen Muirhead, aged 40, of Mill View Lane, added: “It’s ridiculous. I don’t think anyone’s going to be best pleased with it. There’ll be parking problems and noise. It’s full of wild animals round here, and there are horses, deer, geese — they’ll be affected by it.”

The licence application will go to a committee hearing at Bolton Council on October 20.