Harry Ramsden's will make a decision on whether to sell its Oxford fish and chip restaurant to a pub chain after a licensing hearing next month.

City council planners yesterday gave permission for the chip shop in St Ebbe's Street to be turned into a pub.

But a spokesman for Harry Ramsden's said: "This is the first stage as far as they are concerned. The next stage involves going to a justices licence hearing in early October. It's only after this that a decision will be made."

The firm says it is looking at other sites in and around Oxford to move to.

Grosvenor Inns wants to turn the St Ebbe's building into a Slug and Lettuce pub.

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