A businessman has described why he hopes to swap selling curtains for cooking crepes as retail trade declines in the High Street.

Darren Singh has been running JD’s Homestyle in Chatham for nine years but now he is hoping to turn the premises into Medway’s latest dessert parlour.

Mr Singh, 35, has applied to Medway Council to convert the home furnishings shop into a restaurant.

If permission is given, the store will become a cafe serving ice cream, waffles, crepes, milkshakes and smoothies. It will have a large seating area and also serve takeaways.

Despite being in the heart of the town centre, Mr Singh’s profits have declined over recent years due to competition from chains such Primark and Wilko’s and more people shopping online.

He said: “There’s a lot of other competition doing the same thing in retail parks, and there’s shops like Primark who expanded their home section and Wilkinson’s, and they buy in bulk. People shopping more on the internet has affected us too. We have suffered.

“With something like an ice cream parlour there’s not much competition. It’s a new thriving business and it will be a good attraction for Chatham High Street.”

Business is booming for dessert parlours as the trend for pudding-only dining sweeps across the UK.

Medway already has dessert cafes in Chatham Maritime and Rochester High Street and there is another in the pipeline for the former Fads decorating shop in Green Street, Gillingham.

Mr Singh said: “We have done a lot of research. There are places like Creams and plenty of others if you look at other parts of the country. We are looking at doing something similar with a twist.

“Chatham High Streets gets flooded with school children and there are lot of mums with their children down here during the day, these are the sort of people we will be appealing to.

“I think a new business like a dessert parlour will enhance the high street and bring more people into Chatham. It’s exciting for the town and the people will love it.

“We will also be helping the economy because we will have about 20 to 30 part time and full time staff.”