A new restaurant in a garden centre’s huge extension is set to open this summer.

Layham Garden Centre in Staple, between Canterbury and Sandwich, was taken over by the Johnson family five years ago with the hope of turning it into a community hub for local people.

After being granted planning permission, work started on the 3,220 sq ft new extension two years ago.

Within weeks it will become the new entrance to the shop and host the tearoom and toilet facilities.

Mark Johnson, who took over the business with his wife Suzanne, brother Peter and his wife Wendy says they are now looking for an operator to run the cafe.

He said: “We were a four man team, my wife had the vision.

“We wanted to update the facilities to be a traditional garden centre.

“You can’t change this village, it has been operating for hundreds of years and we don’t want to change it, just modernise.

“It will be a community hub, a place for people to come and meet up, socialise and whatever there is a need for locally, we will try for it.

“We are ready now to invite someone to come and run the restaurant.

“We are passionate in what we do and we want someone who is passionate, and local, to run the cafe.

“We don’t want a Costa or a big company coming in, we want a nice village tearoom with cakes baked on site.

“It’s niche, we want people to come here and think wow, and we want people to take their time walking round here.”

Once the new signs arrive and the furniture is installed, it is hoped the new extension will open within the next six weeks.

Eventually more greenhouses, polytunnels and a three-bedroom home will also be built on site.

There are hopes to attract more local businesses like butchers, dog groomers and fruit and veg producers in the near future.

Mr Johnson, from Swanley, believes now more than ever it is important to support local growers which are being lost to development “too quickly”.

“Summerfield Nurseries closed down and has homes being built on it,” he explained.

“We were forced to sell one of our nurseries to go into a land bank for the local plan.

“We are losing facilities to grow plants too quickly but it’s important we have facilities like this.

“We have had developers contact us saying they want to build houses, but we just couldn’t do that.”

Summerfield Nurseries, also in Staple, closed after plans were approved to build new homes on the site.

The five-acre plot is currently being developed into a collection of four-bedroom detached homes.