A FORMER Southampton car garage is to be transformed into an estate agents. 

The old Hunters Land Rover dealership on The Avenue is to become a Charters Estate Agency, who intend to open up their Southampton branch from this unit, after plans were approved by Southampton City Council. 

The agency will take up around two thirds of the ground floor including the eastern most section of the building as this is closest to the pavement and has large display windows which are essential for their proposed use.

The agents will retain the nine parking spaces at the site, and the area is accessible by bus.

No external changes to the building are proposed although Charters will require some shop signage.

The site was originally for commercial use and therefore supported jobs and economic activity, which the applicant says will be retained.

In a statement, the applicant says: “It is clear from the consideration of the foodstore application that the intention was for the retained building to be re-used for commercial uses, and by implication a resistance to residential or non-commercial use.”

The agents will be open from 8am to 10pm on Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 5pm on Sundays, bank holidays and holidays.

One part of the H.A Fox Jaguar and Hunters Land Rover site, which is at the junction of The Avenue and Banister Road, is already occupied by a Lidl store.

This store became the fifth Lidl in Southampton and created 23 jobs in the city when it opened last year. 

The store compromises of 115 parking spaces.

These plans were met with frustration from local residents who wanted a smaller store or new homes to be built on the area.