Creating new parking spaces opposite a parade of shops has been recommended for approval despite objections.

Next Thursday (June 13) Three Rivers District Council’s planning committee will consider allowing the hardstanding opposite the shops in School Mead, Abbots Langley, to be expanded to create an extra 12 spaces, making a total of 20.

Planning officers have assessed the plan, submitted in March, ahead of the meeting and recommended permission be granted but the final decision will be down to the committee councillors.

There are already spaces available along the side of the road but the plan would add a hardened “grasscrete” verge and install timber bollards and kerbs, increasing the depth into the green, so that cars could park perpendicular to the road rather than parallel to it.

Ten members of the public in Greenview Court, the building where the parade of shops is, have objected to the proposal.

There is apparently limited parking for residents and guests, so objectors welcomed more spaces, but the application form suggests traffic regulation orders would be considered “to prevent all day residential parking”.

Several asked for at least some of the spaces to be left unrestricted so residents could use them, or for the scheme not to go ahead at all if this could not be done.

The existing free spaces are apparently enough to hold most vehicles in normal hours but struggle at “peak times”.

Tanners Wood Hall and Abbots Langley Baptist Church are nearby to the south of the spaces, while Tanners Wood Junior Mixed and Infant School is on the other side of the green.

Existing and proposed parking spaces. Existing and proposed parking spaces. (Image: Three Rivers District Council)

However, when assessing the plan, officers said the council can only consider the actual work being proposed next week.

Restricting bay usage cannot be done as part of the planning process so, if work is approved, a separate consultation process would be required for regulation which would be the responsibility of the council’s parking team.

“This process, however, is separate to the planning process and therefore cannot be considered as part of this current application,” the report added.