A UNION HQ building that has been vacant for six years is set to be converted into flats.

Windsor Properties (Taunton) Ltd has won conditional planning permission to create five flats in the listed three-storey property in The Crescent.

A further four two-storey semi-detached homes can also be created at Unison House, previously an office building housing the regional headquarters of Unison.

The union vacated the building in 2017, when it was bought by Windsor Properties after a buyer could not be found to take it on for commercial or office use.

The five apartments will feature two bedrooms each, while the semi-detached properties will include two three-bedroom houses and two two-bedroom dwellings.

The plans replace earlier proposals for two three-storey blocks each with eight apartments.

In its successful planning application, a statement said: "The revised site plan benefits from a smaller building footprint than the original scheme and due to the location of the existing structures retains the open space that the site originally had, albeit that the site external areas are made over to tarmac and parking spaces.

"The benefit here is that the buildings will no longer have issues with massing and potential overlooking both of which were issues we contended with at the time of the original application.

"The free areas of land will be put to limited car parking and the remainder of which will be green open space and amenity areas for the benefit of residents of the development."