Occupy Norwich protesters are this afternoon dismantling their encampment on Hay Hill after Norwich City Council was granted an order to remove them from the site.

They say they expect to have cleared the site by Tuesday morning, bringing to an end their four-month occupation before a visit from council bailiffs.

At a hearing this afternoon, attended by two members of the council's legal team but no one from Occupy Norwich, District Judge Philip Rogers granted the order, stating that adequate notice of the council's legal action had been given to the protesters.

He said: 'It looks like you have been working with the people occupying your property and you have tried to come to an arrangement which doesn't seem to have worked.'

Solicitor Nigel Brims, representing Norwich City Council, said the council had tried to balance the 'qualified right of the group to make its protest' with 'the need to ensure even-handedness with other community groups and ensure no one group monopolises Hay Hill.'

Kitt Moorhouse, of Occupy Norwich, said the camp had come to an end 'but Occupy will never die'.

'The camp's coming down today. We're doing it nicely and peacefully before the council arrive to force us to do it.'

'We all knew the court case was coming and all they had to do was cross the t's and dot the i's.'

He said the movement would continue, possibly through smaller, weekend Occupy camps.