It's radio bar-bar and it's ready to tune into Preston's city centre wavelength - with DAB hub upstairs

Luthers Bar will replace the former BetSid bookmakers shop in Friargate, next door to Wetherspoons’ Grey Friar pub.

The new business will have drinking and eating on the ground floor, a bar lounge with soundproofed karaoke rooms on the first floor and above that four small radio studios.

The city council has approved the scheme despite eight objections about its possible impact on residents living nearby, including increased noise and the risk of crime. Locals complained it could lead to an increase in noise and crime in the area, which also has two more alehouses with late drinking licenses nearby.

One of the men behind the project is presenter Leroy Allen who is chief executive of Preston’s community radio station Beat 103.2 which broadcasts from a studio in the Guild Hall shopping arcade.

Mr Allen is also a director of Preston DAB, a company which was set up in February as a partnership with two others to apply for a licence to bring small scale DAB digital radio to the city.

The building has been empty since 2019 when businessman Simon Rigby sold his BetSid chain of shops.