Swindon council has been given permission by its own planning department to make changes to its offices as work ramps up ahead of the opening of the new museum and art gallery.

The authority is now able to move a doorway by 30 centimetres.

The council had been given listed building consent to install a passenger lift in the 1930s Art Deco Civic Offices.

It would be used by visitors to the art gallery and museum, currently being installed on the first floor.

But it asked for a condition to be removed to allow it to move the door to the lift lobby from the main corridor by a foot to the side.

The fabric of the door and the lift will remain unchanged.

The council’s Conservation officer wrote to planners saying: “I agree with the Heritage Statement there would be some harm, and in this instance content to attribute that harm to the lower end of less than substantial.”

The work has been permitted.

The lift will allow visitors, especially those with access needs, to get to the first-floor museum and art gallery. Before the work, there was just a goods lift in place.

Work is continuing to convert offices on the first floor of the Civic Offices for the exhibition spaces.

A spring 2024 opening date is expected, which will be four years since the museum and gallery shut at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown.