The expansion of a grade II listed building hotel has been given the green light by the planning authority.
Broadland District Council has this month granted listed building approval, to go alongside planning permission, for changes to the Stower Grange Hotel in Drayton.
The application sought a two-storey extension to the rear of the existing hotel in School Road with improved on-site parking facilities.
Additional bedrooms on the first floor as well as a meeting room on the ground floor will be added to the hotel as part of the plans.
The applicant Richard Fannon stated the meeting room facilities will "feed into the growing status of Drayton" and "hopefully benefit the local amenity as well as the wider economy".
Changes to the hotel would also include appropriate disabled facilities for the new site.
Drayton Parish Council fully supported the extension plans for the hotel, which has been established since 1973 and operated by Mr Fannon since 2000.
Graham Everett, chairman of Drayton Parish Council, said: "We were very pleased to support the application to expand and very keen to support the business.
"We want to back anything which will support the community and encourage Drayton to grow, particularly after the challenging times presented by Covid."
The extension plans have been a long-running process and were originally approved by the district council as far back as 2004.
But due to "other business and personal commitments" the approval lapsed.
A design and access statement for the application reads: "The target needs for the additional en-suite bedrooms and facilities remains, given the increasing popularity of Norwich and Norfolk as an important centre for business alongside a thriving tourism industry."
A delegated report for Broadland District Council written by case officer Steve Beckett recommended consent for the plans.
It states the extension would have a hipped slate roof, rendered walls with "a classical character" with the scale of the extension matching the existing building.
The hotel is registered by Historic England as a grade II listed building, which mostly comprises of an 18th century construction with an earlier material from the 17th century also used on the main frontage.
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