Sheppey's favourite seaside pub is reopening.

Within weeks of Neil Moran and his sister Laura I’Anson closing the Playa at The Leas, Minster new landlady Nicola Smith has taken over the lease.

She has been busy recruiting staff and interviewing chefs and as already started taking bookings for Mother's Day lunch on Sunday, March 27.

She said on Facebook: "We are overwhelmed with the support we have received already and cannot wait until we reopen."

No official date has been given but staff are hoping to reopen its doors on Friday, March 18. Ska and reggae band Brad Pittance and the Pirates have been booked for Friday, April 15, for the pub's first live music session and there are plans for a children's street party in the garden in June to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee along with a Michael Buble tribute act.

The pub is also launching a "bottomless Meze" from April 2 with unlimited Prosecco, Gordon’s gin or Fosters lager in the private dining room. A two-hour session costs £45 per person. Diners get a jug of either Pimms or Fuzzy Navel (peach and vodka cocktail) on arrival.

Mr Moran and his sister had run the seafront venue for five years after taking over from their father Eddie Moran. It had been in the family for 25 years.

Although they said they left on “good terms” with the landlords, Neil said they had been unable to agree a long-term future for the pub.

He said: “We wanted to develop the pub. We would like to have seen a dining area upstairs with views out to the sea or airbnb rooms. We would also have liked to have extended the pub so we could have a function hall to host weddings and events. We were doing more of that in the garden but it cost £5,000 to book a marquee."

They are now concentrating on their other catering contracts at Sheerness and Sittingbourne golf clubs.

The pub's owners put it up for rent and were asking for at least £25,000 for the leasehold and another £55,000 a year to run the business.

The free house and restaurant with "stunning coastal views" was said to have turned over £700,000 a year pre-Covid. It comes with a self-contained private four-bedroom flat upstairs with its own kitchen. It has seating for 250 outdoors and parking for 50 vehicles.