Mounting debt from pink burgers court case is behind closure of Portsmouth's 6oz Burgers, says ownerÂ

James Baldry, 38, ran 6oz Burgers, in Osborne Road, Southsea, since August 2014 but revealed at the weekend it had shut for good.

Mr Baldry and then-business partner Piotr Mientkiewicz, 36, lost a court battle over pink burgers with Portsmouth City Council in December 2015.

The News revealed how the firm was handed a prohibition notice over the making of pink burgers but then contested this in a lengthy legal battle. Owners said they could prove the burger was made safely but the council argued against this.

Now more than three years after the case, mounting debts have forced the closure of 6oz Burgers. It shut its doors on January 5 but an announcement on Facebook was only made a week later.

Mr Baldry, who still runs neighbouring restaurant Two Doors Down, told The News: '˜We did really enjoy doing it. All those messages we received '“ we've taken our business heads off and looked through human eyes it's really sad but nice to know that people did genuinely like what we did.

'˜It would be great to see people supporting us at Two Doors.'

He said debts mounted up after costs of the court battle - but now wants to put that behind him.

Mr Baldry said: '˜There was a lot of debt mounting up, and the more we stayed open it would be there so we couldn't carry on.

'˜We would have liked to have had a closing week but with the difficulties between the quiet period between Christmas and New Year '“ realistically it would have probably been the best time to close.

'˜It just eventually came up on us.

'˜It's one of those things - we did manage to pay it all back but it put us so far behind it got to a point we couldn't maintain the debt and we were coming to the end of the lease.'

He added a burger menu, with up to six meat options and the same number of vegan options, will run at Two Doors Down to attract more lunchtime customers.

'˜I want to keep going and try and offer things that people can't get elsewhere,' he added.

The company behind the burger restaurant will now go into liquidation.