A boutique hotel set to open in Norfolk next year could include a yoga studio and wellness facility after councillors approved plans for an outbuilding to change use.

Work to build a multi-million-pound luxury hotel at the site of the former Langham Glass works began in 2014 - eight years after the plans first met with approval.

In 2016, The Langham Hotel, on North Street, in Langham, was sold to the Norfolk family-run firm The Bijou Collection, who are set to open the property as a luxury hotel in the spring of 2020.

And at a meeting of North Norfolk District Council's planning committee on Thursday, December 5, councillors agreed to grant a change of use for an outbuilding used as a former glass factory to "purposes ancillary to the adjacent hotel".

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Jo Cutmore-Scott, co-director of The Bijou Collection, said the converted shed might be used as a private meeting room, wellness space or a one-on-one yoga studio.

"We're absolutely delighted and we're opening in the spring of 2020," she said.

And Mark Cutmore-Scott, co-director, added: "We've got to balance what the hotel needs, and what the residents need, and what the local area needs."

The hotel, marketed as a "contemporary country escape" is described as "luxuriously laid back and appealingly unstuffy".

Owners Mr and Mrs Cutmore-Scott, originally from Norwich, and son Sam, also plan to open an on-site restaurant for the hotel's guests, with a focus on gluten-free.

The outbuilding was originally intended to be a village shop, as part of a planning condition of the original application to convert the glass factory into a hotel, known as a Section 106 agreement.

But council planning officers told the committee there had been "no genuine interest" despite being advertised on Rightmove.

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Richard Kershaw, Liberal Democrat councillor for Langham, said: "This has been a long and sorry saga.

"I've attended parish council meetings and have to report there's a great diversity of views.

"Since the Section 106 was granted, methods have changed significantly. There is a 24-hour garage two miles away. There is Ocado, Amazon, grocery delivery.

"I can't see there's enough storage to support a village shop.

"It's with a heavy heart I am going to support the officers' recommendation on this."

Councillors unanimously voted to approve the change of use.