Coventry City Council is to redouble its efforts to persuade quality eating establishments to open up in the newly created Bull Yard ‘restaurant quarter’.

The project has been ridiculed because it has failed to live up to its publicity. One local newspaper columnist wrote that it was the only restaurant quarter in Europe without a restaurant.

The council admits that its efforts to date have failed, but it is now undertaking a second round of advertising and sweet-talking of major restaurant chains.

It believes that now the costly Bull Yard improvements are complete there is a much better chance of success.

Currently there is only one restaurant in the area, Etna’s Italian Restaurant, which opens during evenings and it is this type of establishment the council is anxious to attract to Bull Yard.

Mick Saunders, head of land and property, at the city council said:

"We have had four applications for the three vacant shop premises, but not from the type of operation we are looking for. The applications were from cafes that open only during the daytime.

"We have not rejected any of these applications but we are looking to attract quality restaurants to the area which would stay open outside the normal hours of trading.

"We shall be re-advertising both nationally and locally. Initially some of the national chains said that the shop units we were offering were too small but now that the square is complete we are hoping for a more positive result.

"The council is prepared to be flexible with leasing terms for the vacant premises to order to attract the right operations."