A new restaurant is set to open in Woodbridge town centre to take the place of a furniture store that closed before the start of the first Covid lockdown.
Patricia Sharman and Co. Catering, which operates from a kitchen at The Cookhouse near Ipswich, has secured planning permission to convert the use of the former Laura Ashley store in the east Suffolk town's Thoroughfare.
Laura Ashley vacated the store on March 23 last year — the day the initial lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
An application to change the use of the unit, a scheme which would create seven full-time and seven part-time jobs, was submitted to East Suffolk Council in March.
Woodbridge Town Council had outlined its opposition to the scheme, believing the change of use would be "injurious" to neighbours in the town centre.
The Specsavers branch in the Thoroughfare had also raised fears over the impact of a restaurant as its clinic room cannot be louder than 35 decibels.
However, East Suffolk planners gave the scheme the green light last week.
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