An application to allow a recycling centre to continue operating on a Green Belt site in Carpenders Park is due to be considered by Hertfordshire County Council.

The unauthorised operation has generated strong opposition from people living nearby as well as local authorities and community groups.

The retrospective application for a site at Mayfair Bungalow in Oxhey Lane will be decided by the county council’s development control committee on Tuesday morning.

The site has been used as a recycling centre since last year and residents say they are suffering due to black smoke from fires on the site and an increase in lorries travelling along the busy road.

Tom Harkness, a director at the Bucks Meadow Riding School, has been teaching pupils to ride in fields backing onto the site for 20 years.

He said: "The bonfires lit on the site have been awful. The smoke blowing across is choking and whenever they are burning stuff you can really smell it.

"You have a rest home for older people on one side and a riding school on the other, if they are allowed to keep it that is going to be a disaster.

"The documents say it is an industrial area but it is quite clearly a residential area so I would say it is in violation of planning regulations.

"You cannot take ponies or horses out riding if they have to contend with devastating smoke and the noise of JCBs."

The proposal would allow recycling of dry non-hazardous materials on the site from 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 6am to 2pm on Saturday and 10am to 1pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

The county council received 67 letters of objection from residents including some living in the neighbouring Auburn Mere Residential Care Home.

A petition of 65 signatures was also collected.

Their concerns included the unauthorised burning of waste on the site, unacceptable development of the green belt, the proposed hours of working, the potential of attracting rats and other vermin and the inadequate access onto Oxhey Lane.

Further objections were received from Three Rivers District Council, Watford Borough Council, The Environment Agency, Watford Rural Parish Council, Carpenders Park Residents Association, Oxhey Village Envoronment Group, Watford Heath Residents and neighbourhood watch.

The applicant, Dean Beeton who owns Any Skips Ltd, said he wants to be a good neighbour and would only be acting in accordance with the terms of the licence.

He added: "I am not here to cause people headaches.

"This has been industrial land for a long time. It is not us building something surrounded by homes.

"There are less lorries now than there used to be years ago.

"We are providing a service and we are providing some work."

Council officials have described the development as inappropriate within the Green Belt and recommended it be refused.

The report further recommends enforcement action be taken to remove the development if it is not carried out voluntarily.