Politicians have thrown out a second bid for retrospective planning permission for an unauthorised recycling centre in Carpenders Park and voted to start enforcement action to remove it.

Hertfordshire County Council’s development control committee rejected the application from Any Skips Limited for a centre at Mayfair Bungalow in Oxhey Lane, which started operating last year.

The latest refusal comes after the council rejected an initial bid to gain permission for the centre, which is on Green Belt land, in June.

Following the refusal, Stephen Giles-Medhurst, a Liberal Democrat county councillor for the area, welcomed the decision saying the operation had caused problems for elderly residents living in the nearby Auburn Mere care home.

He said: "Essentially it is the same application as before. "There continues to be a noise nuisance from the ongoing unauthorised works on this site to residents in my area and it's a big problem for the nearby elderly care home.

"The site is an open green belt location and is seriously detrimental to the area. Such uses should never be allowed in our Green Belt."

At the meeting on Tuesday, October 22, councillors heard the application was for the change of industrial open storage for the recycling of non-hazardous waste on the site generally known as Brickfields Farm.

A report on the recycling operations said the site owners anticipated to process around 5,000 tonnes of waste a year. Most of the recycled material was from construction and demolition sites with around a fifth being commercial waste.

The applicant asked for operating hours of 7am to 5pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.

The owners, Any Skips Limited, argued that the centre fulfilled a need in the area for industrial waste disposal.

The applicants said that although the site was in the Green Belt it was in good location for lorries and other vehicles to get to.

However planning officials concluded the centre was an "inappropriate development" for the Green Belt and was "visually intrusive".

The report also described the site as "prominent in the local landscape" and "a significant encroachment on the countryside."