A family-owned pub has re-submitted plans for a major project to extend its facilities and provide a community store.

Owners at the Bird in Hand at Wreningham, near Wymondham, unveiled last autumn proposals for a diversification scheme which included eight self-contained B&B units, a cafe, kitchen and function room extensions, an outdoor Petanque court and a farm shop/Post Office, as well as the construction of three new cottage-style homes.

Having withdrawn this application, owner David Brake his family, have now placed a similar scheme back on the table although the amount of new homes has now been increased to four.

According to planning documents, permission had been granted several years ago for a 14 bedroom extension which the family now deems to be inappropriate in scale and no longer viable in the current financial climate.

The plans said proposals for the new facilities and housing had been developed in consultation with the Wreningham Parish Plan and were 'essential' to ensure the continued economic success of the historic Grade II listed building.

'It is considered that this enabling development gives the opportunity not only to ensure the continued economic viability of the Bird in Hand, but also to provide enhancement to the setting of the existing listed building and its setting in the landscape, to attract young families to the village who will benefit from and contribute to the facilities offered in Wreningham as a whole,' they said.

Mr Brake has been running the pub for three years. In the 1980s the Bird in Hand was sold by a brewery and it was purchased as a house. It re-opened as a pub in 1989.

To view the full proposals, visit www.south-norfolk.gov.uk