An American-themed restaurant in Canterbury city centre is to close its doors little more than a year after opening.

Staff at Ed’s Easy Diner in Whitefriars were given the devastating news yesterday, less than three weeks before Christmas.

Most have been told they will lose their jobs, while it is understood some have been offered positions elsewhere within the 33-restaurant chain.

One staff member who learned they will lose their job told KentOnline the diner will close within a fortnight.

They said: “We were called into a meeting on Wednesday and told the restaurant would be closing on December 20 and we’d be losing our jobs.

“They’ve even said we need to come in on the 21st to help pack the place up - we couldn’t believe the cheek of it.

“It couldn’t happen at a worse time of year.

“We’ll get holiday pay owed to us, but most of us aren’t entitled to redundancy because we’ve not been here two years.”

The Ed’s Easy Diner chain was sold in October to Boparan Restaurant Holdings, which owns Harry Ramsden’s.

As part of the deal, it took on 33 restaurants and announced the closure of the remaining 26.

In a statement released today, the restaurant chain’s “brand director” Sam Wignell trumpeted how it has “moved quickly to improve the quality of our food and service across the brand” since the acquisition.

But he says the firm looked closely at the performance of its restaurants before it “realised that unfortunately Canterbury is not a viable business and will therefore be closing.”

News of the closure comes just a week after it was revealed Build-A-Bear would shut its store in Whitefriars, where it had been one of the first businesses to open.