THE popular restaurant at a Wirral Garden centre has been forced to close its doors because of 'spiralling' hospitality costs - but there is hope that it could reopen in the future.

A sign in the entrance to Port Sunlight Garden Centre's restaurant reads: "The restaurant is now closed.

"Sadly, spiralling cost increases within the hospitality industry have led to the unfortunate decision to close the restaurant.

"Thank you for the years of support in our catering endeavours."

Mitch Wall, operations manager at Port Sunlight Garden Centre told the Globe: "The current situation is that the restaurant is closed.

"Sadly, as part of the closure we did have to undergo redundancies.

"We might be able to reopen the restaurant in the future, but there is no date for this.

"It has been a difficult time for all in the hospitality industry. We are the third eatery in the area to have closed.

"We are lucky that the nearby gallery cafe is open. The takeaway sector is growing now, as opposed to sit down restaurants."

A fall in visitor numbers to Port Sunlight has also contributed to the decision to close the restaurant.

Mitch explained: "Port Sunlight is popular, but the volume of tourists arriving by coach in the village never returned to the level it was at pre-covid, which means the numbers coming in through our doors has dropped.

"The coach tour thing isn't really popular any more.

"I think it's likely that this is going to happen more and more across the country."