Palombos, which has been a fixture in the Vale for nearly 50 years, is shortlisted — along with five other businesses — in the Independent Takeaway Fish and Chip Shop of the Year at the 2015 National Fish and Chip Awards.

This is the third time the Balloch Road chippy has been nominated, and last time round in 2009 it reached the same stage.

This year, however, shop owner Franco Palombo thinks they have what it takes to beat off the competition. He told the Reporter: “You’ve got to enter the competition yourself, which involves quite a bit of work.

“Then Seafish [the awards organisers] come out and inspect your shop which is how you then get shortlisted.

“The competition is really stiff, I know most of the places and they’re very, very good, it’s not going to be easy.

“They check lots of aspects of the shop, for example, fish and chip shops really need to be seen to be using sustainable fish. We don’t use cod anymore because there’s restrictions in place, we only use haddock.” Franco’s father Ernest arrived in Scotland at the age of 14 after leaving Villa Latina, a small village in Italy, and opened the first Palombos in Alexandria in 1966.

A family affair, Franco took over the running of the shop in 1993 and in 1996, the business upped-sticks and moved to Balloch. Franco continued: “We have a lot of returning customers, from far and wide, places like Cambuslang and Kilsyth and they’ll come once a week or so. The tourism to the area is important too, in the summer it makes up around 60 per cent of the customers.” Ernest continued to work in the shop until his death in 2009 and Franco’s mum Ida, who is 86, still helps out, something Franco says long-running customers appreciate. He added: “It’s a big part of it, we’ve been in this area a long time.

“We have five full-time staff, and five part-time seasonal workers. My children still help out during the season and my wife Moya is involved as well.

“The most important thing about running a business for this long is to try new ideas, anything I see other shops doing that I think will work, I try — you can’t stand still.” The winner of the Scottish title will then go onto the British final which is being held in London in January of next year.