The developer behind a controversial West Cumbrian housing estate has been rapped for breaching planning conditions.

Story Homes was served a legal notice by Allerdale council for working unsociable hours at its 320-home development at Strawberry How.

The firm has been warned it could face enforcement action if it fails to comply with the terms of its planning permission.

A Story Homes spokeswoman said the notice related to a single incident on Saturday, September 9 in which contractors worked on the highway next to the development around 6.30am.

She added that no work was either programmed or authorised at that time but the firm had been "let down" by contractor Aptus Utilities, which failed to successfully communicate the restrictions to staff.

Work is only permitted on the site between 7.30am and 6pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 1pm on Saturdays.

No Sunday or bank holiday work is allowed.

Ian Storey, managing director for Story Homes said: "We are really disappointed to find that our contractors have breached the terms of our planning condition.

"We have a process for approving weekend working and no works were programmed or authorised.

"Unfortunately, our contractors failed to follow this process and were working adjacent to our site without our knowledge.

"This in no way excuses the very early start which would not be acceptable on any day.

"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.

"We would like to apologise to local residents for any inconvenience caused and reassure them that we are taking this very seriously."

Andrew Reay, Aptus Utilities' construction director, added: "We would like to apologise to local residents, Allerdale Borough Council and Story Homes for breaching the planning condition and working outside of the permitted hours.

"As a company we were aware of this restriction but we failed to pass this information on to our site team who were unaware of those restrictions.

"We have reviewed our internal processes and spoken to all involved which should ensure this does not happen again."

the campaign group Sustainable Cockermouth was set up to fight Story Homes' plans for the site.

Chairman Jim Hully said members had been closely monitoring activities on the site and reporting concerns about possible problems to the council.

He added: "The site is very close to people and it affects people's lives if work is going on early in the morning or late at night.

"We are pleased to see that Allerdale has taken action.

"We hope it will be a wake-up call to Story Homes and they'll follow the planning conditions and stick to the rules."

An Allerdale council spokesman said: "We take all reports of possible planning breaches seriously, investigate and take appropriate action wherever a breach can be proved, working with all parties to come to an amicable solution."