A FORMER Indian restaurant overlooking Richmond's Market Place is to be converted into flats.

District councillors have given their blessing to a new lease of life for the property next to The Talbot pub - as long as the design complements the listed building, which is in the town's conservation area.

Neither the town council nor the civic society objected to the scheme, despite some concern over the impact on parking in the area.

However, councillors accepted that the new residents' demand for parking spaces would be higher in the evenings, when the market square was not so busy.