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Council officers have backed plans for a new sandwich shop in Cwmcarn.

Applicant Narinder Singh plans to renovate the premises at 115 Newport Road, which was formerly home to a Chinese restaurant, Jade House.

According to a design statement submitted by planning agent Paul Parsons, of Creation Design Wales, the site is currently vacant.

The proposals show the previous takeaway area will become a small cafe, which includes customer seating, while the remainder of the ground floor layout will remain relatively unchanged.

Documents submitted to Caerphilly County Borough Council show the new business could employ up to three people.

Mr Singh has applied for opening hours of 8.30am-3pm, Monday to Saturday.

The premises also contains an upstairs apartment, which is currently accessible “through the food prep area” on the ground floor, but now there are plans to add a new separate access to the first floor, Mr Parsons said in his design statement.

A council planning report notes three neighbours objected to the proposals, over what they called an “increase in unnecessary competition for existing stores in the area”, as well as the impact on pedestrians and nearby parking.

But these concerns were dismissed by the council’s planning officers, largely because a new sandwich shop would fall into the same “use class” for the building as the previously approved takeaway business.

Use classes exist in planning rules to differentiate between premises such as shops, restaurants, offices, hotels, and homes.

Developers who wish to alter or update the main purpose of a property usually have to apply for change-of-use planning permission.

Addressing the objections to the sandwich shop application, the council officers also said competition “is not for the planning authority to consider”, but added that “irrespective of this, the change of use would be within the same use class”.

The officers granted planning permission for the redevelopment, subject to several conditions, including measures to make sure noise from the ground-floor business does not cause any night-time disturbance for the apartment above.