An entire Mid-Norfolk village will have to have council bills sent out again after a mix-up meant some shocked residents faced a huge hike.The error at Swanton Morley arose when staff at Breckland Council missed out the large number of houses on the Robertson Barracks army base as they calculated bills.

An entire Mid-Norfolk village will have to have council bills sent out again after a mix-up meant some shocked residents faced a huge hike.

The error at Swanton Morley arose when staff at Breckland Council missed out the large number of houses on the Robertson Barracks army base as they calculated bills.

It meant that the amount charged by the parish council was shared among the other houses in the village.

People were furious when they opened their bills to see they were facing a 53pc hike for the parish part of the bill - when they had been told the amount approved in December was just 10pc.

But Breckland has now admitted the error and apologised to the parish council and villagers.

All 588 bills will now be reissued and for a band D property the parish portion will be reduced from �74.41 to �54.72.

The �245 cost of the mistake will come from the Anglia Revenue Partnership's existing budget so it is not passed on to council tax payers generally.

The council's procedures have been changed for checking the calculation of parish precepts.

In a letter to Swanton Morley Parish Council, Breckland's deputy chief executive Tim Leader said: 'We plainly should not have made such a simple mistake.'

Swanton Morley Parish Council chairman Roger Atterwill said: 'Despite a large amount of unexpected expenditure this year we have been very diligent with our parish precept. I'm pleased that Breckland has been able to resolve this matter and Swanton Morley does not have the third highest council tax in the district as was previously published.'