Dobbies has been given the go-ahead to create a new garden centre adjoining a Tesco supermarket in Inverness.
The £5m garden centre will be developed on the site of a former Focus DIY store on Inshes Retail Park, and will share a customer entrance with the Tesco that is already there.

Planning permission for the project has come just three months after Dobbies and Tesco - Dobbies being part of the Tesco Group - got the green light for a trailblazing joint venture in King's Lynn, due to open next autumn. The Inverness development will be the first of its kind in Scotland.

The new garden centre, which could open in spring 2013, will create 120 full- and part-time jobs. Half of the new staff will be given horticultural training. Over 10,000 plants, shrubs and trees will be offered, and there will also be an aquatics department and restaurant.

Dobbies is also currently awaiting planning permission to build a new £8m garden centre in Harrogate.