STAFF at a Swindon town centre restaurant which suddenly closed have revealed the reason for the business going belly up.

Lamaya Lebanese Kitchen and Bar in Regent Circus abruptly stopped trading and allowing reservations to be booked online earlier this summer.

After the Adver published a piece about the unexpected departure of this part of the leisure complex, someone who used to work there got in touch with us.

Maddie Green explained that Lamaya officially went into liquidation on June 14 and closed down on the same day.

She added: "The staff were made redundant effective immediately, without their last pay, and were handed redundancy forms to fill out."

Maddie enjoyed her time at the restaurant but claims a lack of customers and being tucked away at the back of the building made it difficult for her bosses to keep the place open.

She added: "There’s no doubt Lamaya was a fantastic restaurant and a great place to work, but due to where the restaurant was placed and the lack of awareness of our restaurant, we struggled getting in new customers.

"We tried many things to bring in new customers but our efforts were useless. We were lucky and thankful for our regulars but in the end, we weren't making enough money to keep the lights on."

Anyone who misses the tasty Lebanese dishes served up by the team will be able to order them elsewhere in the future.

Maddie said: "I do know that the owners are going to open a new Lebanese restaurant in Bristol's centre. Hopefully they have better luck there."

The last post on Lamaya's Facebook page was in early June, when it offered 50 per cent off all its food for one week.

In February, a post celebrating its two year anniversary said: "We opened only six weeks before the lockdown shut us down, and we've worked so hard since to keep the vision of our restaurant alive.

"We will be here for many years yet to come."

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

A spokesperson for the Lamaya team told the Adver: "Despite our hard work, belief and enthusiasm that we will succeed, we never recovered from the effect of Covid-19.

"We couldn't continue anymore trading and, with biggest regrets, we have to close the door.

"Thank you for all the support we have had from people in Swindon."