Councillors approved plans to turn the top floor of a popular Watford restaurant into a flat despite objections it would lead to the closure of the business.

Rodells, in St Johns Road, currently a bar on the ground floor and restaurant seating area upstairs, is set to lose the first floor after Watford Borough Council planning and development committee granted planning permission for the owner to transform it into residential use.

The application was approved unanimously by councillors at the meeting on Thursday, April 23.

But members of the public who spoke at the meeting said the business, a bijou bar and restaurant near Watford Junction train station, would not be able to continue.

One speaker objecting to the application said: "This part of the restaurant is integral part of the commercial usage.

"The premises only has one set of toilet facilities, and these are on the first floor - the current usage cannot be retained, which we think is a very good reason to refuse permission.

"Granting this application permission will result in the closure of the current business and in fact leave the lower half of the premises unoccupied.

"It will be the end the possibility of 1A St Johns Road being used as commercial building. It is very important to reject this application."

However, planning officers recommended permission be granted, saying that the objection did not change to fact the downstairs could still be used viably for commercial use and that it was a matter for the two parties to discuss.

Councillor Peter Jeffree said: "The principle that approving this application would end the potential commercial use of this building is not what we are deciding here. What's being proposed takes the building back to its original function."

Councillor Mark Watkin added: "I can see no grounds to turn this application down. To refuse on a notional idea that the building will not have commercial viability is not a planning reason."

While councillor Iain Sharpe said: "I've not been there myself, but from what I hear Rodells is exactly the sort of thing in Watford we should be encouraging. I do not like, necessarily, the decision we are taking but we cannot make it on what we feel, we have to make it on planning policy. There is no reason to turn this down. I think we have to approve it."