Burton's Grade II listed county court building - a town landmark for nearly 150 years - could get a new lease of life as a dance hall.

An application to turn the Station Street building into nine flats has finally been approved after more than a year of on-off discussions over the potential use of the courtroom inside.

The county court has been empty for four years

Now it has emerged that the courtroom itself could be converted into a dance hall, conference room or office space under new plans by the man who converted Burton's Ritz cinema into a restaurant.

The historic court, which was built around 1870, closed its doors in March 2013 as part of a national reorganisation of court services and has been standing empty for four years.

All county court matters, including family issues, are now dealt with in Derby.

Dee Sandhu, who was the man behind the revamp of The Ritz from a cinema to a world buffet diner, applied to East Staffordshire Borough Council for permission to convert part of the building into nine self-contained residential apartments.

However, before plans were approved Mr Sandhu was asked by the council's planning officers to provide more information on the potential use of the courtroom, which is not included in the application.

He said in a report to the council: "The use of the courtroom has not yet been decided.

"It is under consideration for several uses including a dance hall, conference room or office space. None of these uses would be restricted by the current proposal.

"Once the use has been decided a separate planning applications will be submitted."

There are plans to turn the court building into nine flats

In a report to the council, Tim Foster of BDS Architecture, acting as agent, previously said that no parking would be provided for the apartments as the building is situated in the town centre.

The nine apartments will include five one-bedroom flats and four two-bedroom flats.

Burton also lost its magistrates court in September 2016 – with cases transferred to Cannock, Derby and Newcastle under Lyme.

Figures released to the Mail after the closure of the court revealed that it still costs £3,683 a month to run and taxpayers have paid more than £88,000 while it was up for sale.

To put the figure in context, that amount would pay for four graduate nurses at Burton's Queen's Hospital.