A new flat could be built above the former Just Tiles shop in Woodley, it has been ruled – after owners already got permission to open a late-night convenience store below.

But there are fears that new residents of the flat could be disturbed by noise from the late night Nisa store.

Wokingham Borough Council gave Mr Tajmeet Singh planning permission to change the offices above the shop on Headley Road into a flat on Monday, February 19.

It comes after the council’s licensing panel also agreed that he could sell alcohol from the shop below from 6am to 11pm.

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But a neighbour, Mr S Singh, said he was worried that noise from the shop would keep the people living above it awake at night.

Mr S Singh said: “Having it open until 11pm usually means people have to clear up, do your stock check etc. So that will go well past 11pm.

"I don’t understand how the people are supposed to sleep. There’s not really a care for their wellbeing.”

But Mr Tajmeet Singh said potential residents would know they would be living above a shop before they move in. He said: “When we do the viewing upstairs, someone will be shown. They won’t be blindfolded. They will be choosing if this place is right or wrong.”

He added that allowing flats above shops was ‘nothing unusual’ and that it would be compulsory to have sound insulation between the shop and the flat.

The pair were speaking at Wokingham Borough Council’s licensing and appeals sub committee on February. Mr Tajmeet Singh noted that the decision on the flat was up to the council’s planning department, rather than licensing.

Wokingham Borough Council planning officers said the flat can only be built once they have been provided with plans to protect residents from shop noise.

Planning officers said: “Any new business that occupies the retained commercial floor space on the ground floor has the potential to generate unreasonable noise levels which would harm the occupiers within the proposed residential unit above.

“The submitted application form states that sound insulation will be installed to mitigate noise from the downstairs units, however no details have been submitted to confirm that the intended measures would be sufficient.”

They added: “To ensure that future occupiers are not adversely affected by noise, a noise impact assessment should be carried out with any agreed mitigation measures to be implemented prior to the first occupation of the unit.”