Plans to change the use of a vacant shop unit have been approved allowing a frozen food chain to take over.

Farmfoods was hoping to open a second store in the former Bensons for Beds in the Imperial Retail Park, Gravesend.

However, plans to change the use of the ground floor for the sale of food and other goods needed to be given the green light first.

In a planning statement, the applicant Box+III Gravesend Limited said the proposals would allow Farmfoods to move into the empty shop.

The supermarket has a 470 sq m store in the Thamesgate Shopping Centre but the plans stated it “no longer meets requirements for the Gravesend area”.

The grocery firm wanted to fill the Imperial Retail Park unit, which is almost double the size at 928 sq m, to create a more “pleasant shopping experience”.

Gravesham council officers have since approved the scheme as it complies with local and national planning policies.

In their report, they said it would allow the space to be “brought back into use” albeit for a different use.

Another Bensons for Beds in the county is set to become a 24-hour gym.

The empty unit in Sittingbourne has been taken over by PureGym.

An opening date for Gravesend’s second Farmfoods has not yet been announced.