A home and garden centre is to be included in proposals for a £50m shopping and leisure development ona brownfield site at Rushden Lakes, Northamptonshire.

East Northamptonshire Council have backed plans to add a further five restaurants to the complex (making eight in all), an extra 154 parking spaces (now more than 1,450), a home and garden centre, a lakeside visitor centre and a boathouse. Marks & Spencer is expected to be the anchor store.

The project is expected to create 2,000 jobs.

The development had been approved by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles following a public inquiry, following concerns about its impact on nearby town centres. The minister had call in ther plans for further scrutiny.

The developer is LXB Retail Properties, which submitted its original application in 2011.