A GP surgery is set to be extended to improve access and working conditions after planners gave the idea the green light.

Hay Medical Centre said in a planning application to the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority that it wanted to have four new consultation rooms and a new record store at the Forest Road surgery.

And the plans have been given the go-ahead by planners.

The extension is set to have three rooms, with the fourth created by reworking and refurbishing the existing building, plans from West Hart Partnership showed.

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A design and access statement said that since the medical centre, in Hay-on-Wye, was built in 1998, the NHS has moved towards providing more services within primary care buildings to "relieve the stress on secondary care".

It said that the extension would mean the surgery could offer improved services to existing patients, while improving access and working conditions for staff.

"The layout of the plan continues that of the existing which will help legibility and simple way finding for all users," it said.

The materials used to build the extension would be the same as the tone cladding, brick and slate on the existing building, with matching slate-effect tiles, brown painted aluminium windows and aluminium glazed brown painted doors. Car parking would remain the same.

The statement also said how two of the new consulting rooms would have separate access, allowing them to be used in isolation from the rest of the building.

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It said that during a pandemic, such as Covid-19, it meant these rooms could be used in isolation from the rest of building.

This would prevent a virus spreading, allowing services to continue in the main building.

Brecon Beacons National Park Authority case officer Lisa Williams said the extension would not have an unacceptable impact on the character and appearance of the main building, surrounding area of the wider national park.

It would also have no detrimental impact on neighbours, road safety, cultural heritage or protected species, and would enhance biodiversity, she said.

There would also be no increase in phosphate levels of the river Usk special area of conservation, she said.