Story Homes has been fined £500 for breaching a planning condition at Cockermouth's Strawberry Grange estate.

The housing developer was prosecuted by Allerdale council for working outside agreed times at its development off Strawberry How last year.

The company appeared at magistrates court in Workington and admitted working outside the permitted hours of 7.30am and 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.

A spokesman for Allerdale council said: "The council originally served a breach of condition notice on Story Homes in September 2016 after it had received complaints from local residents that construction work had taken place outside of the agreed hours. However, despite this, the council continued to receive complaints and was therefore left with no option but to prosecute the firm."

Story Homes told the court that measures and procedures were now in place to ensure compliance with the agreed construction management plan.

The company was fined £500 with a victim surcharge of £50 and a contribution to the council's costs of £100.

Jim Hully, chairman of campaign group Sustainable Cockermouth, said: "I'm very pleased. People in our group have been writing to Allerdale about it numerous times and I'm pleased the council has taken action.

"Allerdale put the conditions in the first place so they should be enforcing them."

Andrew Pearson, production director for Story Homes, has apologised for the breach.

He said: "We are deeply disappointed to find ourselves in this position and would like to apologise to local residents and Allerdale Borough Council for breaching the planning condition and working outside of the permitted hours.

"We have in place robust processes to ensure all our employees, contractors and suppliers are aware of our working hours. There is no excuse for the breach and we will accept the punishment.

"We are working with our subcontractors across the board, to reinforce the message that this is simply not acceptable and to ensure everybody has an awareness and understanding so this doesn’t happen again. Once again, I would like to apologise to local residents for any inconvenience caused and reassure them that we are taking this very seriously."

Story Homes already has full planning permission for 96 homes on the estate and outline permission for another 224.