PLANS for a new pizza takeaway near a Southampton hotel have been approved.

A shipping container is to be placed in the garden of The Bitterne Park Hotel and turned into a pizza takeaway.

The proposals have been unanimously approved by city councillors.

The new takeaway is expected to open from 10am to 10pm Monday to Friday, from 9am to 11pm on Saturdays and from  10am to 9pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Some residents previously raised concerns over the plans and the impact of the new  business on waste and nearby roads.

But planning bosses recommended the approval of the proposals.

At a meeting of the Planning and Rights of Way Panel on Southampton City Council on Tuesday (Dec 14), councillors were told that the new takeaway would bring a “unique concept” to Bitterne Park.

Applicant Melt Pizza previously said the new takeaway would help deliver “a sensitive regeneration of the site”.

Planners in the city said a new takeaway would be “unlikely to intensify comings and goings to such a degree as to cause unacceptable or undue effects on local residents’ living conditions”.

All members of the panel voted in favour of the proposals.