The building of a small housing estate in Croxley Green moved a step closer this evening when councillors voted merely to defer their decision on the application.

Three Rivers District Council was again sitting in judgement on a scheme to build on the site of the Croxley Car Centre, next to the Harvester pub and restaurant in Watford Road.

In recent years the council has considered and rejected numerous developments at the site, including proposals for 43 flats and 24 three-bedroom houses – both of which were rejected.

The council’s development control committee was expected finally to approve an application for the building of ten houses on the site but decided instead to defer its decision until members’ last remaining doubts were answered.

Croxley Green councillor Phil Brading said the applicant, Refined Estates Limited, was “getting there” with the scheme but still expressed serious reservations about its design.

He said: “First of all there is a question to be asked about the proximity of plots one and ten [the first two houses] to the busy Watford Road.” Both, he added, had been moved even closer to the road in the latest application – the last, almost identical proposal having been withdrawn earlier in the year.

He added: “In principle this is the best application we’ve seen so far and, in principle I support the idea of a residential development at the site."

The committee decided, however, to request some further clarifications about the scheme: whether the houses could be brought back further from the road; whether the joint access road could be made wider; and whether the so-called ‘section 106’ money paid by the developer to the council could be spent exclusively in Croxley Green.

A final decision should be made at the council’s next development control committee meeting.