Planners have given the green light to a £4.15m state-of-the-art cancer care and support centre at Cromer and District Hospital.

The proposals for the North Norfolk Macmillan Centre were rubber-stamped by North Norfolk District Council.

It paves the way for preliminary works, involving the refurbishment and extension of the hospital's disused Davison Unit, to start. The new centre could be up and running by the start of 2021.

It will enable patients, many of whom currently travel to Norwich, to have their treatment and access support services closer to home.

The proposals were developed by Macmillan Cancer Support and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The news comes after it was revealed that farmer Douglas de Bootman left more than £1m in his will to the N&N Hospitals Charity, towards the cost of the new centre.

Mr de Bootman farmed at Pentney, near Swaffham, before retiring and buying Church Farm in Thursford. The 88-year-old died in March 2018 following a short illness.

The North Norfolk Macmillan Centre will include six chemotherapy treatment chairs with capacity to treat up to 36 patients a day.

It will have three new clinic rooms and two new minor procedure rooms, creating an additional 10,000 outpatient appointments annually.

In addition, there will be a Macmillan cancer information and support centre.

The new unit will also free up space in the main hospital building to deliver an extra 600 surgical procedures in dermatology, urology, vascular surgery and pain management.

Gwyneth Tyler, Macmillan head of services for south and east England, said: "The building of this centre is only possible because of people's generosity and I look forward to seeing it take shape over the coming months."

Simon Hackwell, director of strategy at NNUH, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to deliver more treatments and appointments closer to home for patients in north Norfolk and is an important part of our plans to increase capacity for cancer treatment and other outpatient services at Cromer."

Cromer Hospital currently provides a range of acute out-patient and day case services and has a minor injuries unit.