Neighbours fear a “traffic nightmare” if plans to turn a 60-year-old equestrian centre in Bushey into houses go ahead.

Rickmansworth developers, Clovercourt Fusion, are proposing to build 34 new home on the Bucks Meadow Riding School site - 12 of which would be affordable housing.

The centre in Bucks Avenue is comprised of 11 hectares of Green Belt land will be open to the public and provide link to the Merry Hill circular walk.

They also propose to build a village green with a pond on the land, which has been used as a riding school since the 1950s.

On Friday, a public consultation was held at the riding school and more than 200 people turned up.

Neighbours who attended raised concerns about the impact the development, which borders Oxhey Village, would have on the area.

Richard King, Bucks Avenue resident, said: "My main concern is the volume of traffic. As it is, during rush hour it gets highly congested and can take up to 20 minutes just to get out on to Pinner Road.

"With this proposal you are looking at perhaps an extra 60 cars - the traffic would be a nightmare. And then there is parking to consider - people park in Bucks Avenue and Sherwood Road all the time and if there's not enough spaces then there's an even bigger problem."

Chris Piddington, of Lower Paddock Road, said money needed to be spent maintaining the land where the riding school is situated.

Peter Taylor, councillor for Oxhey Ward, said: "It is important that we protect our green belt.

"Roads in this area are often congested and this would only make matters worse. At present the riding school provides a gradual change from an urban setting to a rural one. This development would change that and this is one reason for opposing the planning application."

Bucks Meadow Riding Centre is currently owned by Madeleine White and Tom Harkness, who have been there for 23 years.

They said: "It is a very sad decision that we are having to close the school. The centre has not been economically viable for some considerable time.

"This is a very sad time for all of us at Bucks Meadow and as for our clients we can only thank you for the loyalty you have shown to us and we hope you will have had many happy experiences and memories over the years that you have been here."

The centre will officially be closing on Wednesday, September 30.

Clovercourt are proposing to buy the centre subject to getting planning permission from Hertsmere Borough Council.

Iain Taylor, head of planning at Clovercourt, said: "In response we confirmed that Herts County Council had appraised a larger scheme than that exhibited and had indicated they were satisfied that the scheme met their requirements.

"However we will look to increase the amount of on-site parking and would assess whether relevant authorities and residents would welcome the introduction of a Parking Restriction Order on surrounding roads, funded by Clovercourt, to curtail commuter and non-resident parking on the local highway network.

"We will also look at methods whereby binding assurances could be provided to prohibit future building on the 11HA of land."

A meeting with the residents will take place on Tuesday, September 1 at the Methodist Church Hall on King Edward Road at 7pm.