Five Norfolk towns are set to see hundreds of thousands of pounds invested to plan their futures.

Councillors have approved a £392,000 spend to create town plans for the district's five market towns at a meeting of Breckland Council, including £196,000 from a pool of funding from business rates.

Members of the council heard the project would create visions for the futures of Attleborough, Dereham, Swaffham, Thetford and Watton, with work on the plans concluded by 2021.

Bill Borrett, Conservative member for Upper Wensum, welcomed the investment, and said: "This is a substantial sum of money going to be spent in the communities in Breckland.

"I'm really pleased to see there is a proposal for money from the business rates pool to be available for Norfolk."

And Terry Jermy, Labour councillor for Thetford, said: "Other authorities that I sit on talk about cutting services.

"This is to Breckland's credit."