A VILLAGE fire station which has stood empty for the past seven years is set to become a block of 18 flats.

A planning inspector has given the go ahead for the flats, a ground floor community facility and basement parking on the site of the former Radlett Fire Station in Watling Street.

Although the main issue was whether the proposed development made adequate provision for a community facility, the inspector Isobel McCretton looked at other issues including parking and highways safety and privacy.

She commented that local residents had expressed concern about the level of on-site parking provision for the flats and the heavy demand for off-street parking.

But she pointed out that it was a location with good access to public transport and no objection had been raised by the highway authority with regard to the parking.

She also said that the highway authority did not believe that the road network could not accommodate the amount of traffic that would be generated.

But long-time campaigner against the closure of the fire station, Stephen Oakes-Monger, who lives in Park Road maintains that the issue of the loss of the fire station in 2006 is still a big one in the village.

He believes the fire station site is the wrong place to build flats because of its location on, “the busiest and most dangerous roundabout in Radlett.”

He pointed out that a parking permit system operated in Park Road where there were 33 spaces and there were already not enough before the flats were built.

A non-permit holder himself, Mr Oakes-Monger said that there was no guarantee of a space for anyone with a permit and warned that with only one space allowed for each new flat, the overspill from second car owners would make matters worse in Park Road.

The appeal against the rejection of planning permission for the scheme was made by the county council which owns the site and Beechwood Homes.