A family that has owned a fish and chip shop for more than 50 years are backing plans to regenerate part of a "dead" town centre.

An ambitious proposal has been revealed to transform Bench Street in Dover by knocking down its rundown buildings and replacing them with housing, an education campus and space for new businesses.

The scheme is being led by Dover District Council, which is hoping to secure £20m in government funding to help progress the scheme.

And mother and son Mario and Carmela Macari, whose family has owned the Europa Fish & Chips building since 1971 and run the business there for much of that time, say the regeneration is badly needed.

They describe the street as "dead" and say they have seen a drastic decline in footfall over the last few decades.

As such, they have reduced their opening hours since 2017 - now only trading for six months of the year in the summertime.

Mr Macari, 57, said: "This was a very busy little street with lots of passing trade.

"We even had people in cars on the way to the ferries late at night coming to us to buy food.

"Now it is dead and any changes for the area have to be better than this."

Mrs Macari, 76, recalls: "People would come to our door as late as 11pm to buy food but we would be closed by then."

The Macari family opened the business 51 years ago when Bench Street had two-way traffic going between Market Square and Townwall Street.

Now it is a pedestrianised area with its central thoroughfare dominated by a long ramp to a subway. The family say these changes helped suffocate trade.

Mr Macari, 57, said: "It has taken away passing trade. People don't even know we are here so there is almost no footfall.

"The only hope of passing trade is in the summer, which is why we are now only open from April to October.

"From a business point of view the area is now dead. A lot of shops are closed and there are derelict buildings.

"The council's plans make things more hopeful for business - anything is better than this."

The subway, which takes pedestrians under Townwall Street and to the seafront, was built in 1992 in time for the unveiling of the relocated A20 the following year.

By chance it led to the discovery of the town's legendary Bronze Age Boat, which is now a treasured artefact in Dover Museum.

DDC is applying for £20 million from the government's Levelling-Up Fund to revamp the Bench Street area.

A decision on this is expected at the end of January.

The council now owns Bench Street properties at numbers 8, 10, 11, 14 and 15 and will re-use the land for housing and business space, as well as an education centre, it says.

Europa, at number 9, was opened by Carmela and her late husband Guerino seven years after they moved to England from Italy in 1964.

The family ownership has been constant since then but the shop was leased out to others from the early 1990s to 2006.

In their first years, 14 Bench Street, directly across the street from them, was a gift shop. In 2006 it became the Funky Monkey nightclub, which closed earlier this year.

Next door, the now-empty number 15 was a Post Office.

The Bench Street car park was a tax office, and a now-empty piece of land at the corner of Bench Street and Townwall Street was a newsagents.

Europa is next door to 10 Bench Street, the site of the now-gone Crypt restaurant, a popular eatery in the town until it was burned down by a fire on March 27, 1977.

Seven people including three children and a fireman died in the tragic blaze.

Three members of the Clay family who lived upstairs in the five-storey building were among those who perished, but one survivor was Lionel Clay.

He was in the same school year as Mr Macari, then aged 12, at Dover's St Edmund's RC.

Lionel had first noticed the smoke and alerted members of his family so some got out and survived.

Mrs Macari, who with her family then lived in Springfield Road, Dover, said: "A member of staff at Europa telephoned me early in the morning to tell me about the fire.

"I rushed down there and the front of the restaurant looked intact, but I discovered the back had collapsed.

"The Crypt was a popular steak house and my family used to have a meal there every week.

"What happened was horrible and so sad."

The council regeneration also involves reusing a disused cafe at 8 Bench Street and also knocking down number 11 - home to the now-covered Banksy Brexit mural.

Artists are calling for the piece of artwork to be moved and preserved before that happens.

Other Bench Street traders also support the area's regeneration.

Melanie Morgan, from Sew Useful, which sells handmade products such as bags, wallets and purses, said: "I think it's a great idea. The work once completed will be amazing."

Sasha Eastwell, of the Urban Calm beauty salon, said: "The changes would be really good for the area. It will bring some more footfall down our end.

"The Funky Monkey is falling to bits, as far as I know, so it would be nice to see something decent going up."

Francesco Pasquino, chef of the Il Rustico Italian restaurant, said: "The changes are a good idea. Parts of the area have been derelict for very many years."

The plans for Bench Street complement existing projects to rejuvenate Dover town centre, including the £9 million restoration of the Grade I-Listed Maison Dieu and £3 million plan to revamp Market Square.