A major development that will transform a long-derelict car park into hundreds of homes has been given the go ahead.

Worthing's planning committee approved proposals for 216 flats to be built on the town’s Union Place site.

There will be 104 one-bed, 100 two-bed and 12 three-bed apartments and the buildings will be between four and 11 storeys.

Some 20 flats will go to Worthing households on the borough's waiting list for affordable social rent, with a further 23 being available for shared ownership.

Worthing Borough Council said it intends to partner with Worthing home builder Roffey Homes and will share the cost of the project.

It said it will use the council’s share of the profits to acquire more of the flats, also for further provision of affordable social rent homes.

There are currently around 1,900 households on Worthing's housing waiting list.

A council spokesman said: “We share a vision with Roffey for a high-quality, sustainable development and adopt an architectural approach that reintroduces street frontages to High Street and Union Place while respecting St Paul's church and other historic buildings nearby.

“We hope Union Place can become a multi-generational development, where young families, first-time buyers and older residents live alongside each other and share the gardens and other facilities.”

The homes and gardens will sit on top of a 236-space car park. Ninety of those spaces would be for residents and 146 for visitors to the town centre.

The lime tree on the corner of Union Place and High Street will be retained while new trees will be planted to line both roads. Across the site, the new green and public areas will cover roughly the size of a full-size football pitch.

Each building in the development will be “highly” sustainable, the council said, being either connected to the Worthing heat network or using exhaust air heat pumps to ensure low carbon emissions. The homes will also be designed to include extra insulation, underfloor heating and to use less water than traditional homes.

The developer amended its plans to consider the views of residents during consultation events. Work is planned to begin at Union Place this year. The development is expected to take up to three years.

Councillor Caroline Baxter, Worthing's cabinet member for regeneration, said: “I am extremely supportive of this development. It is sympathetically designed and will bring new life to our civic quarter. It will unlock Union Place and High Street, creating new commercial space and much-needed new and genuinely affordable homes on derelict land.

“Worthing is in the grip of a housing crisis and as a council for the community we are determined to build more of the type of properties that our community so desperately requires.

“This development will mean new sustainable homes for local people, with local partners, using local labour.”