Plans are steaming ahead for a prime retail space in Cheltenham to become the county's fifth Caffè Nero.

Cheltenham planners have approved the coffee shop chain's bid to take over the former premises of Hillarys Blinds, at the entrance to the Gateway Retail Park on Tewkesbury Road. 

The move is a strong strategic choice for the brand: the Gateway Park has outlets for Smyths Toys and Currys and is close to Kingsditch Retail Park, which features McDonald's and Halfords branches.

It will also signal a case of "one-in, one-out" because Cheltenham is set to lose its Promenade outlet for the café chain when the House of Fraser store closes in April.

Although it describes itself as a "startup" and says its vision was modest, the high street chain which began life in 1997 now tops 1,000 outlets in 11 countries, with more than 770, at the last count, in the UK. Its latest annual revenue was just under £228m.

Caffè Nero's move to the Tewkesbury Road site necessitated advertisement consent for internally illuminated fascia panels with individual built-up lettering, as well as an internally illuminated roof-level sign with individual letters fixed to horizontal rails, planners were told.

A report said: "The building has an existing retail use and did have advertising on the building. It is situated on the front of a retail park with all the other units having advertising of some sort on them."

It added that additional roof-top advertising is not similar to the signage on the adjacent sites but that no complaints had been received and it was "not considered so outstanding to distract drivers".

Gloucestershire's Highway Authority also raised no objection.

The report concluded: "As such, the proposed fascia signs are considered to be wholly acceptable and will not be harmful to the building in terms of visual clutter."

Caffè Nero's business in Gloucestershire hit national headlines in May 2015 when the company said it would stop serving milk from farms engaged in the badger cull. The move was in reaction to alleged threats from activists opposed to DEFRA's ongoing badger culling policies. Milk supplies were consequently sourced from farms outside the culling zones.

● Caffè Nero offers delivery in the UK via Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats and recently indicated that these channels generate 3% of its overall sales. Meanwhile, almost a third of all UK store transactions are now made via the Nero App, which has signed up more than two million members.