A third application to expand a controversial traveller site has been met with opposition from concerned residents.

Plans to extend the plot in Chiswell Green Lane, St Albans - on Green Belt land - which include changing the land’s use, the laying of hard-standing and a new building, have been submitted to the district council by traveller John Connors.

A previous application to extend the site just 120m from tourist hotspot Butterfly World was rejected at the start of the year.

An expansion bid in December 2013 sparked outrage among Chiswell Green residents due to the fear of an increase in anti-social behaviour and crime.

One local resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “This application is causing great worry and distress to residents with the Connors family’s ruthless contempt of planning law and the local residents’ wishes.

“They have still not replaced all of the bushes, trees and flowers that they flattened three years ago to make way for a tip yard.”

St Stephens’s parish councillors called for the application to be refused due to an “inevitable increase in traffic from the coming and going of static homes and touring caravans”.

Councillors had previously described the site as “covered with building debris, trade waste, rubbish and mini diggers associated with the applicant’s personal business” and once again urged the site to be restored to how it was previously.

Consultation on the application will end next Wednesday (May 20).