A Christian centre has won planning permission for a bigger store for its food bank after what it called a year of increasing “food hunger”.

Sure Hope Christian Centre on Abergele Road, Old Colwyn, wanted to demolish a garage and store to the rear of the premises and replace it with a purpose built two storey centre.

Conwy county council’s planning committee heard on Wednesday how it would create extra storage for its FoodShare programme and give additional space to run community programmes teaching new skills to local residents.

The application, a scaled down version after a similar scheme was knocked back by planners last year, also included a single storey section adjacent to a a boundary wall with Maes y Coed Avenue.

Peter Calcraft spoke for the application and explained why the extension was needed.

He said: “It will be a community hub hosting a variety of programmes helping those with low skill levels upskill.

“Also because of the growth of the Food Share programme it will be essential to service this programme with adequate food supplies.

“It needs to expand to meet the food hunger that has developed over the last 12 months.”

The Food Share programmes sees items donated by supermarkets and local people redistributed to the community on a weekly basis – and has regularly helped around 90 families over the past three months.

An online ordering programme has been developed where households can pre-order packages which can be collected at set times

Planning officer Ceri Thomas said there had been a further seven objections received regarding the application from residents of Albert Road and Maes y Coed Avenue.

Councillor Nigel Smith proposed an amendment to the hours of operation for deliveries, originally 7am-9pm from Monday to Saturday, to start an hour later at 8am.

He said he would support the proposal with the amendment to timings.

Cllr Andrew Hinchliff said: “I can’t help thinking the demand for food banks will increase with Brexit, so I’m in favour.”

Committee members voted 11-0 with one abstention to approve the amended proposal.