Plans to turn a bank into a cafe with outdoor seating at a shopping square have been approved.

The Barclays building in Southwick Square, Southwick, has been empty since the bank left in October 2022.

But it will be given a new lease of life now that Sussex bakery chain The Flour Pot can turn it into a new branch.

It will be the 11th Flour Pot in the county - there are branches in Worthing, Hove and Brighton.

Adur District Council’s planning committee passed the Southwick proposal unanimously, meaning the Flour Pot can get to work replacing windows, furnishing the courtyard and modernising the interiors.

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Planners Harp and Bright said: "The location is an ideal setting, providing further amenity to the high street and putting use to a currently empty unit.

"Use of the outdoor space, east of the premises, in the courtyard area will bring a positive inhabitation to the area, enhanced by the existing trees."

Two residents had raised concerns about the plans, saying the square did not need another cafe. 

Elaine Lewis, from Shoreham, said: “The plans are overdevelopment of this area, plus it does not need another cafe, there are three already.

“It will place more obstacles in the way of the disabled, people with prams and wheelchairs.”

But council planners said the proposals would help revitalise the area.