A luxury car showroom has got the green-light from planners at Swindon Borough Council to increase the size of its building.

The Swindon Porsche Centre, which occupies a site just east of junction 16 of the M4 in Blagrove, south of Freshbrook can increase the size of its indoor showroom and move its car park onto an unused patch of grassland.

The showroom is operated by Dick Lovett Ltd which also runs the Ferrari showroom next door.

And the company told the council’s planners the new building was needed to be in keeping with Porsche’s new corporate image and also that maintaining a smart and exclusive appearance was important in business terms.

The company’s application said: “Dick Lovett is not your ‘normal’ car dealer with the far-too-often unsightly view of cars sprawled on every inch of hard and soft landscaping and spilling onto neighbouring roads.

“On Dick Lovett sites there is a firm belief in a well-managed site presented in a tidy and clean manner with exceptionally designed, installed, and maintained buildings and mature landscaping that forms a dominating part of the site to provide a world-class experience for both the staff and customers.

“The new corporate image requires new cars to have a greater amount of space for each car and a more customer-centric approach to showroom layout. This has resulted in the need for a larger showroom as well as increased used car display space.”

The work that has been permitted will see an extension to the existing building’s south side, on top of the existing car park with a small increase to the showroom footprint and reconfiguration of the main entrance on the north side.

The proposed southern extension will cover the existing compound, which in turn will be moved further south, covering over a grassed area.

Dick Lovett told planners: “The design across all parts of this proposal is to an incredibly high standard with all areas of the design considered from inception to ensure a cohesive scheme throughout. It will be providing a significant employment benefit to the area.”

Planning officers were happy to approve the application. The report recommending approval said: “The area in which the extension and extended, re-located car compound area would be sited is considered to be of very limited value in landscape terms.

“Views of the site from the south and the M4 would be framed in the context of the adjacent commercial buildings including the pharmaceutical warehouse building to the east which is significantly larger than the application building.”