Plans to build up from a currently unused shop in the town centre’s Regent Street and construct nine flats have been approved.

And it could mean those living on the top floor could be sipping their morning coffee on their private balcony while watching the comings and goings below on one of the town’s main shopping streets.

Armada Holdings Limited has been given the go-ahead for its proposals to put two extra storeys on top of 49-51 Regent Street.

The building was last used by Co-operative Funeral Care, with the ground floor its retail space and the first floor used as offices.

The development company will keep the retail space on the ground floor but will convert the first floor and the two extra floors into a total of nine flats.

Drawings as part of the application show the top floor will be set back from the front of the building, allowing the single two-bed penthouse apartment to have a small private balcony overlooking Regent Street.

The other eight flats will be distributed equally across the first and second floors and feature two apartments with one bed and two with two bedrooms, with the layout repeated.

Flats on the first floor will have small roof “gardens” and the rear second-floor flat will have a small balcony.

Swindon Borough Council has a policy of encouraging more residential development in the shopping area as a way of revitalising the town.

Its planners said: “It doesn’t appear that either of the neighbouring properties or those to the opposite side of Regent Street are currently in residential usage.

“There are flats above the shops fronting the public car park to the rear these are sited some distance away and set at a right angle to the proposal site. For these reasons, no harm will be caused to existing residential amenity as a consequence of the proposed extensions or the proposed use.

“Residents will benefit from suitable natural light and privacy levels. The provision of external amenity areas for several of the flats is also welcomed and whilst not all will be truly private the preference is that there be provision.”

There is no parking for cars provided with the conversion- but the council’s planning rules do not demand that for flats in such a central location.