A meeting to decide the fate of a landmark building in the city centre descended into farce as a vote to block the scheme was overturned.
Norwich's planning committee has approved permission for the former Debenhams building to be demolished and rebuilt to accommodate 377 student rooms.
Initially, a majority of councillors opposed the scheme, with five councillors voting against its approval, four in favour and one abstention.
The meeting was then adjourned for councillors to come up with strong enough reasons to justify rejecting the scheme.
Councillors were then going to conduct another vote to agree the reasons for refusing the project.
But when the meeting started again, two of the councillors that had voted against the proposal had left and did not vote.
It meant that when the meeting resumed, and councillors voted again on rejecting the plans, this was opposed by four to three votes.
When the vote for approval was conducted again, it won approval, as the objecting councillors, Green party members had left.
It means the 1950s department store will be demolished and turned into flats.
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