It has stood vacant for the past six years, but the historic Cedars building in North Walsham is now set to become a community hub.

Cabinet members at North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) - which owns the building - have agreed the town council can move back in along with Norfolk Citizens Advice and third, unnamed public body.

At a meeting on Monday, councillors also considered a bid to turn part of the Grade-II building in New Road into a micro-pub, but this was deemed incompatible with the other proposed tenants.

Eric Seward, NNDC's portfolio holder for finance and assets, said: "In blunt terms, you could have a pub occupying the a large part of the ground floor, but no public bodies. You cannot have both.

"The town cannot afford to loose the civic and community services that the three bodies provide. They add to the quality of life and public well-being in the town."

The town council moved into another building in King's Arms Street - owned by Norfolk County Council (NCC) - in 2016 after pub chain JD Wetherspoon expressed an interest in buying the Cedars and turning it into a pub. After this fell through, NNDC opted to renovate the building and lease it out.

The town council has to move out of King's Arms Street by March because NCC says new rules mean it is no longer energy efficient enough.

Jane Morton, one of four partners behind the micro-pub bid, also spoke at the meeting. She said of their plan: "We truly believe that this pub will enhance the current regeneration of North Walsham.

"Our main objective is to provide an inclusive, safe, welcoming home for our community."

Ms Morton said the pub had the potential to become a "flagship" for North Walsham.

But town mayor, Garry Bull, said that while there would theoretically be space for both a micro-pub and the town council in the building, in practice they would not work together.

Mr Bull said: "The businesses proposed there just do not fit. I can just see the headlines now: town council is held in a pub.

"It’s purely the perception, and the fact is that it's really not suitable for us to take up a rental within the Cedars if it was not a civic hub, and used as a commercial business."