It is not Laurel - it is English laurel which is Prunus laurocerasus and not Laurus nobilis. It is called laurel as the leaves look similar-ish. You do cut off the flower spikes, unless you want berries. You cut off the berries and spike as well. It is a tough plant that needs little attention apart from a prune if you think it needs it.

thanks for that, can you tell me when I need to cut off the spikes? and in not doing so last year will that effect the growth this year?....also will it make a nice hedge?

You can do what you like with Laurel (some people don't like leaves cut in half). Best to remove the spent flowers. I don't have a hedge, but a tiny mixed shrubbery of dwarf conifers backed by an old Laurel. Every year, as it finishes flowering, I shave it back to a modified cloud prune to line up in a gentle curve with the conifers. If I didnt' prune it would be 20 feet tall by now. Depends on how tall you want your Laurel hedge. Any time it gets out of line it gets a shave.....easy.

You don't need to cut off the flower spikes unless you feel so inclined, it won't stop the plant growing - in fact, the problem will be keeping it under control. This one gets 25 feet by at least 15 feet if not kept in line... Unless the plants you've bought were a cultivar of Prunus laurocerasus, such as 'Otto Luyken', which only get 3 feet.

Any suggestions then on how to get this to a nice compact 4ft high hedge and keep it that way?...when should I start to prune?..as you can see they are only about 18" high at the moment.

Oh dear - this isn't a plant to create a 4 foot hedge with - it tends to develop a large, woody trunk as it gets older, positively tree like. They don't look big enough to cut back hard currently, but the usual advice with new hedging is to reduce the height of the plants by a third to a half in their first year to encourage more shoots at the base. A better choice for such a small hedge would have been something like Lonicera nitida, which has much smaller leaves and will give a dense hedge down to the ground.

Ahh thats not what i wanted to hear.....so should i take them up and change them...am happy to go to 5ft hedge....now Im worried.

Have you no information, or at least a label or a proper name for these left from when you got them? Because if they're a small cultivar such as 'Otto Luyken', as previously said, they only get 3 feet - but they do spread out by 3 feet too.
If what you wanted was a dense, reasonably low hedge to form a clipped barrier, then you've got the wrong plant... If you want to change them, I'd be inclined to wait till end of summer and then start looking at hedging websites to source the plant you decide you want instead more cheaply - they supply bare root in winter, and that makes it cheaper.

No sadly no labels or ID, was just told that these were suitable for a dense hedge of the height I reqd, as the 'branches' are alternate on the stem if that makes sense and not side by side. Really hoping they are 'Otto Luyken' now ...grrrr!!
The width wont be too much of a problem as they are a border for my front lawn and have a 3 ft verge the otherside too.

I hope they're a cultivar too - the leaves in the pic look just slightly narrower and longer than the leaves on the bog standard, large Prunus laurocerasus...

yes they are and they are more pointed at the end...okay I am feeling a little better about them now. They are certainly not the same at the rotundifolia variety that you see almost everywhere. They have brighter leaves that are more shiny.

There's a couple of varieties now with this kind of leaf, but they still get huge... Maybe a wait and see how they do.