People living around Clarendon Park in Borehamwood are furious at the borough council for allowing a CCTV control room to be built there.

At a recent meeting, Hertsmere Borough councillors said they understood residents' concerns about traffic and the loss of part of park.

But they were convinced the new control room would improve the neighbourhood and make the crime-ridden park safe again, as the scheme involves demolishing a derelict building, installing security cameras and replanting the remaining park area.

In recent years, Clarendon Park has become a haunt for drug addicts, who left scores of used syringes in the bushes, arsonists who kept setting fire to derelict buildings and drunks.

Borehamwood councillor John Nolan said: "Any improvement there would be a good improvement. That building should have been pulled down years ago."

Councillor Tim Sandle agreed: "It is one of the worst areas of Borehamwood, there are lots of gangs of youths."

But Grosvenor Road residents are fuming, as all the traffic from the new control room will go along their road, which is barely wide enough for two cars to pass. They are also concerned that if trouble-makers are flushed out of the park, they will simply move to surrounding residential roads.

Barbara Constable, from Grosvenor Road, said: "I just feel they really have not listened to us.

"They were more concerned about the lighting and the colour of the tarmac than the effect the building would have on residents."

She said all Grosvenor Road residents were against the scheme, as the road already had serious traffic problems, and any extra vehicles would create permanent gridlock.

"Would anybody want a 24-hour commercial operation to be set up at the end of their little cul-de-sac?"

Residents plan to discuss their concerns with councillors over the next week, and are considering launching a campaign against the control room.

If the council goes ahead with its plans the control room will be built by the end of this year, and will comprise a 400-square-metre office suite, to replace the current control room at Elstree Film and Television Studios.

June 19, 2002 13:00