A charity shop which was set to replace Halstead’s Turkish restaurant has decided to remain where it is.

St Helena Hospice’s charity shop, in HIgh Street, Halstead, was looking to relocate across the road to the building formally occupied by Lalezar Turkish Restaurant.

Despite the original intention to relocate, the hospice, which raises money to support the Colchester-based charity’s work providing specialist palliative care services, has decided that the costs required would not deliver a suitable return for patients and family care.

Matt Seccombe, head of retail at St Helena Hospice said: “We look forward to continuing to welcome all our customers and donors to our existing shop at Halstead which is a popular shopping destination run by an excellent manager and team of volunteers.”

It will continue its opening hours of Mondays to Saturdays from 9am until 5pm.

The proposed move had attracted a lot of criticism from residents, who wanted to see the large building used for another purpose, including a big chain or a restaurant.

Lalezar opened in May 2014 before closing at the start of 2015 following a gas leak.

In January, two men, aged 26 and 20, from Uzbekistan were detained after an immigration raid on the restaurant and were later deported after being found ot be in breach of their visa conditions.

The owners of Lalezar were handed a £10,000 civil penalty after failing to demonstrate they carried out appropriate pre-employment checks.

Komol Ergashev, an adviser for the restaurant, which his wife owns, claimed at the time the officers had made a mistakeand the pair were just renting a room above the restaurant.

The building, formerly a post office, was built in November 1895 and has changed hands many times in recent years.

It closed for good in September and was put up for sale, marketed by Birchall Steel Consultants.