A business park in south Lowestoft could increase in size after plans for eight new units were approved.
East Suffolk Council has approved a planning application for eight light industrial units on land west of Kirkley Business Park, off Horn Hill.
According to a document submitted with the application, the units will be "for small local business with an emphasis on assisting start-up type businesses".
The applicant, Peter Colby Commercials Ltd, said the development will "rejuvenate a redundant piece of land adjacent to an existing estate which has light industrial and commercial use".
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Planning officials said the site was an area of cleared land to the west of the business park and was in an existing employment zone.
The site, which will be accessed from Maconochie Way, will include four separate buildings each split into two units.
The plans also include boxes for swifts and bats, a suitable lighting scheme to protect bats, as well as native tree and shrub planting.
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Lowestoft Town Council's planning committee considered the application at a meeting in February last year and agreed to recommend approving the plans subject to an ecology report.
The report, which was requested by East Suffolk Council, said the development would result in the loss of habitat of low ecological value (bare ground) and minor areas of grass and bramble which was considered "not to be significant".
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One neighbour raised concerns about a lack of public consultation, the impact on adjacent habitats and sites and incorrect information on the planning application.
In 2018, Peter Colby Commercials bought the former Lowestoft Magistrates Court which had been sitting disused and derelict since its closure in 2016.
Some areas of the old Magistrates Courts building in Old Nelson Street were soon turned into offices and another area into a community dental services which opened in December 2020.
In 2022, the courtrooms reopened as The Grit - Lowestoft Centre for the Arts and Heritage.
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