Six flats will be built in a Croxley Green car park, councillors decided this evening.

Members of Three Rivers District Council’s development control committee agreed the scheme, in Grove Crescent, by majority vote.

Some residents, however, had strongly objected to the idea, questioning its impact on the mostly elderly residents of neighbouring flats and the loss of car parking spaces.

Croxley Green councillor and committee member Phil Brading voiced concerns about the scheme – made possible only by the sale of the land by Three Rivers District Council in 2005.

Referring to an accompanying report prepared by council officers, he questioned whether proper consultation had been carried out.

He said: “The only consultation that I am aware of is the one me and my fellow Croxley Green councillors carried out when the land was to be sold. The overwhelming view then was that it should not be sold to developers.”

Councillor Brading, who abstained in the vote, also questioned the legitimacy of several statements made in the same report; notably that the car park was “rarely used” and that it had become a haven for drug users and vandals. Both claims, he said, were “unsubstantiated”.

Council leader Ann Shaw, who voted in favour of the development, said the council had carried out its own consultations.

Development must begin within three years.