NEWPORT Market will get a £750,000 facelift to help it attract more shoppers, councillors decided.

The city’s planning committee passed proposals, which will see the historic High Street facade, entrance and stalls improved, at a meeting on Wednesday.

Cllr Ed Townsend, cabinet member for regeneration, said the work would help the market welcome shoppers and reintroduce people to the nearby Market Arcade, which has long been neglected.

He said the market revamp was “one piece in the jigsaw” of the wider regeneration of the city, along with developer Queensberry’s plans for a multimillion pound leisure and shopping complex in John Frost Square.

He added that with the reintroduction of buses along High street and the authority’s two-hour free parking initiative, Newport was an attractive place to visit.

The improvements to the market include the creation of a restaurant on the ground floor and basement, new windows, a new High Street entrance and stall front improvements.

The council also intends to fit folding doors, retractable awnings and outdoor seating areas to ground floor units to create a market and cafe quarter.

Eventually a food academy could be opened upstairs in space currently used as offices.

The work is being funded by regeneration firm Newport Unlimited, which is two-thirds funded by the Welsh Government and one-third by Newport council.

Although the plans were passed by the planning committee on Wednesday, they will need to be signed off by the Assembly before work can start.

This is because the authority is unable to grant itself the required consent it needs to carry out work to the grade two listed property.