A planning bid to build four new houses in a flood zone in a Norfolk village has been thrown out by a district council.

The plans, lodged with the North Norfolk District Council in June this year, proposed developing land adjacent to Bertha Bloggs Cottage on Kings Street, Hunworth.

The plans were refused as the site is located within a flood zone, could impact the nearby Hunworth Common Country wildlife sight and would “fundamentally alter the character of the street scene.”

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According to planning documents the houses were to be self-built in “a traditional Norfolk vernacular style, using reclaimed materials wherever possible” and “occupied mainly by the applicant’s family.”

One of the arguments from the applicant was that the plans fit the local area as the other properties on the road range from the 17th to 20th century and have been altered or extended, adding “some quite recently and some in a very eccentric way".

One local objection stated: “There is no consideration of the design, or any assessment of how it meets with the clear requirements laid out in the emerging Local Plan.

“We regard the plans as deeply inappropriate and unacceptable.”