A family-run holiday park is set to expand with the pitching of 11 luxury safari-style tents which will bring 'glamping' to the borough's great outdoors.

The owners of Swallow Park in Belton won permission to erect the tents - that combine hotel comforts with traditional camping - after winning over the council with their plans to bring popular glamping holidays into the area.

The tents will provide a bedroom, living room and kitchen area with toilet and shower under canvas supported by a timber frame, and sit next door to Swallow Park's touring caravan pitch.

Shaun Sampson took over the park from his mum, who wants to retire, and now runs the site in Lawn's Lane with his brother and sister.

He said the glamping plans had been in the pipeline for around 12 months and was delighted that the tents were so warmly welcomed by borough councillors, who passed the proposal without any need for discussion at a meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Sampson said: 'We wanted to do a bit more than caravans, and didn't want to do static caravans because plenty are doing that.

'Log cabins was going to be a little bit harder, so we looked at doing something completely different.

'We had a few friends that had been doing teepee and yurt holidays so we looked at doing something temporary for the summer and they (the safari tents) looked the best thing.'

The tents are set to be among the first of their kind in the area and Mr Sampson hopes they will help boost the borough's tourism offer

'As far as I know there's a site in Hunstanton (with them) and one somewhere in Suffolk, so we're hoping it will be a draw (for visitors),' he added.

Highways work is now needed on the entrance to the site from Beccles Road before the tents can be pitched, but it is hoped they will be ready to welcome their first happy campers next season.

? Councillors also agreed to allow variety store B&M to regularise its sale of non-bulky goods at Tuesday's meeting.

The shop, which took over the former Homebase store in Great Yarmouth, did not have formal permission to sell items such as food, drink, confectionery and toiletries, to which it had given over 25pc of its floor space since it opened just before Christmas.

But members agreed to a condition change to regularise their sale, as they recognised their importance in helping to make the business viable and the jobs the store had maintained since the closure of Homebase.