Residents in Abbots Langley face a renewed battle against plans to build a housing estate at the end of their gardens.

Developers have resubmitted plans to build nine family homes in a small plot of land behind 18 Gallows Hill Lane – a scheme rejected by councillors last June after a vigorous campaign by local residents.

Opponents of the development claim it would destroy a historic orchard, damage wildlife, strain local infrastructure and impinge on their privacy.

Three Rivers District Council’s development control committee broadly agreed with those arguments when it ruled on the plans last summer.

It later saw a legal challenge to its ruling dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate on procedural grounds.

Developer Thorne Barton Estates Ltd has now resubmitted the same application, arguing that it will help to meet local demand.

Susan Osler, who led the anti campaign, blasted the planning system for allowing the application to be resubmitted “unaltered” but vowed to fight it every step of the way.

She told the Watford Observer: “This development would further change the character of the village so we must fight it. We are already facing a long wait to get a doctor’s appointment and there are not enough school places. This will make things worse.

“It is very disappointing that this application can just come back like this. We have now got to fight our campaign all over again.

“Sadly, I know that this application will eventually be passed because that is the way that the system works.

Three Rivers District Council will rule on the application later in the year. If its development control committee decides again to reject the plans, another appeal is likely to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.

If approved, the plan would involve the demolition of a bungalow at 18 Gallows Hill Lane and the building of nine three and four bedroom detached and semi-detached houses on an adjoining plot of land currently occupied by an orchard.