A supermarket chain has this morning finally won its battle to gain approval for its controversial shop-front at Cromer.

At North Norfolk District Council's development committee, members went along with the officers' recommendation to approve Iceland's latest plan - potentially ending a three-and-a-half year struggle for a resolution.

But councillors voted to give Iceland six months to carry out the remedial work that it has promised.

Council planners had argued that Iceland's Church Street frontage was flat, featureless and damaging to the conservation area. But supporters claimed it looked no worse than the Woolworth which previously occupied the premises and was not in an attractive part of the town anyway.

Iceland, which faced prosecution for failing to comply with an enforcement notice ordering it to remove its shopfront after losing two planning appeals, recently submitted a third application. It included two recessed in and out doors, providing more symmetry, reducing the depth of the fascia to the same as that of Woolworth, and removing the roller shutter.

In making their recommendation, officers concluded that refusal could 'no longer be reasonably justified'.