A tattoo training academy is to be set up in a vacant shop in Berrylands.

Kingston Council granted permission for the academy, teaching tattooing and piercing on pre-booked courses, to fill the currently vacant shop in Chiltern Drive.

Alongside the academy, there will be a new shop selling jewellery and clothes.

Chiltern Drive is one of two "local centres" in the borough with the highest vacancy rate for shops, at 40 per cent (the other being Red Lion Road in Tolworth).

The council puts this down to poor access and a low "catchment population" of 470 houses nearby.

Officers approved the plans in order to try to keep shops in the area, but recognise Chiltern Drive will likely decline further without a long-term strategy.

The shop was previously occupied by Amazing Glazing Ltd, which Companies House records state dissolved in August 2015.