YORK’S Blue Bicycle restaurant is not now expected to reopen until the second quarter of 2017 - almost 18 months after being badly flooded by the adjacent River Foss.

The restaurant in Fossgate said in a statement that the complexity of the structural damage caused by the floods of December 2015, coupled with the building’s proximity to the river, meant it had not been able to move forward with restoration work.

It said it was “working tirelessly behind the scenes to reopen as soon as possible”, but it could not as yet provide a specific reopening date.