Planning permission has been granted to a town council to increase its amount of local authority housing by converting a six-bed house into two apartments.

Southwold Town Council has been given the go-ahead by East Suffolk Council for the work at the property in Strickland Place, Southwold.

It will see the three-storey house in the town's conservation area refurbished and turned into a one-bed ground floor apartment and a three-bed first/second-floor apartment.

Agents for the town council, Hamson Barron Smith Ltd said the purpose of the project was to provide much-needed affordable local authority housing.

The company said: "The existing three-storey six-bedroom house, is only really suitable for one large family, and was recently being used for ‘bed and breakfast’, but this market has vanished in the light of the pandemic so it is vacant."

Parking will be provided on-site for each of the two apartments.