AN error by bureaucrats at County Hall may have allowed a controversial dump site to open five hours a week longer than it should.

Watford Waste 2000 was given permission by Hertfordshire County Council last year to build the dump off Colne Way.

The company was originally allowed to operate from Monday to Friday between 8am and 5.30pm.

However, when county council officers drew up the legal document of planning permission the hours were recorded as 7.30am to 6pm - the operating hours Watford Waste 2000 had applied for, not those agreed by the council's development control committee. The error allows an extra five hours per week.

Watford Waste is preparing to open the site and had expected it to be ready by the end of the year. The county council hopes to win the legal right to revoke its own planning permission before then and to restrict Watford Waste to the agreed hours.

The county council has appealed for the right to revoke this permission and, if it is successful, it will re-issue permission with the times agreed.

The council has apologised for the mistake.

Watford Waste believes the confusion will hinder rather than help its business because its preparations have had to be put on hold while the issue is resolved.

Watford's MP Miss Claire Ward, who campaigned with residents against the site, said: 'To discover officers have messed up and that this might mean an extra hour of misery each week day is quite appalling.'