Bakery and café brand GAIL's could be coming to Chester city centre.

Plans have been lodged with Cheshire West and Chester Council for the conversion of the former Yorkshire Building Society branch on Bridge Street into a new café and bakery.

Minor alterations are sought to the interior and exterior of the site, including the removal of the ATM from the Grade II-listed building.

Cheshire is home to a couple of GAIL's locations, including in Knutsford and Wilmslow, but this would be the first one to open its doors in Chester if permission was granted for the proposals.

GAIL's bakery was set up by Gail Mejia in 2005 in London's Hampstead High Street, after initially running as The Bread Factory business.

Its website says: "We bake fresh, handmade bread, pastries and cakes every day, served with our carefully-sourced house blend speciality coffee. We take great pleasure in using the best ingredients we can find for food and drink, using seasonal ingredients from suppliers we trust."

The business adds it aims to keep surplus food to a minimum, wasting as little as possible, donating leftovers to local charities.

Planning Potential, on behalf of the applicants, says GAIL's has a track record of opening up in, and maintaining, listed buildings in Epson, Greenwich and Buckingham Palace Road in Westminster.

The majority of seating would be indoors, while it is proposed for there to be eight external seats for the pedestrianised street between 10.30am and 8pm. They would be located under new awnings above the shopfront windows.

Planning Potential added: "With other awnings also installed on shopfronts on Bridge Street, the introduction of awnings at this site with not result in the introduction of an ‘alien’ feature to the Conservation Area."

The plans are due to be decided by the local authority at a later date.