Councillors have voted to grant final permission for four new homes in a Norfolk village - construction on which began months ago.

At a Monday meeting of Breckland District Council’s planning committee, members looked at a proposal for four new homes on Hargham Road in Old Buckenham, near Attleborough.

Permission was granted for the development in principle in June 2020, but the technical details of the plan had not yet been approved by the council when part of an historic hedgerow was removed and construction began earlier this year.

The works were noticed when a council officer drove past the site and saw that construction had begun on some of the homes above ground level - which permission in principle does not allow.

One resident claimed in an August letter to the council that work had “reached the installation of roofing timbers on one of the houses”.

At the meeting, a council officer said the council has “been working with the applicants and the agents to find a resolution to developing the site out as shown on the plans, and including [a] replacement hedgerow".

She said the plan would bring a “net gain in ecology”, because the applicant, Devlin Developments, will plant 285m of new hedging to replace the 70m of hedging which would be removed.

Nick Moys, an associate partner at Brown & Co, serving as agent to Devlin Developments, said: “Of that 70m to be removed, 20m at least is probably not really best described as hedging - it’s really just scrub, bracken and brambles.”

Tree planting is also proposed, Mr Moys said, and Devlin Developments has drawn up an agreement for a footway linking the development with the village.

Conservative councillor Phil Cowen said to the committee: “What you’ve heard today, I hope, is in many ways a vindication of the process and the principles that we follow in this council.”

He added: “I think it’s quite right to reflect on permissions in principle and what they do and don’t do, but when a permission in principle is granted, there is therefore an expectation that certain works have to be carried out in order to ensure that a proposal which was found to be favourable could actually be implemented.”

Councillors then voted to approve the plans.