Controversial plans to turn a disused fire station into a block of flats will leave hundreds fighting for parking spaces, campaigners say.

The planning application by developer Beechwood Homes to turn Radlett Fire Station, in Watling Street, into an 18-apartment complex was granted this week.

But the decision was labelled “lunacy” by Park Road resident Stephen Oakes-Monger, who hoped the plans would be rejected as the new car park will only leave one parking space per flat.

The 53-year-old believes many moving in as a couple will have two cars - meaning they will rely on nearby Park Road for off-road parking - which is always 'full to the brim'.

He said: “It is ridiculous - the planning inspectors have totally glossed over this and it is such an important issue.

“There is not enough parking as it is and this will cause a monstrous amount of traffic in the mornings, with people scrambling for parking spaces.

“I feel we have just been fobbed off with rubbish, this is going to create chaos on the street but they are not taking any notice of it at all.

“We’re already maxed out parking here now. If everyone moving in has two cars there clearly will not be enough space.”

There are currently 33 parking spaces in nearby Park Road - and Mr Oakes-Monger claims over a 60 day period, the spaces were full 102 times he returned to his house.

The gardener began campaigning against the development last November, after the plans were initially rejected because they lacked a big enough ‘community facility’.

Aside from the parking chaos the plans would create, he also said it was the “worst possible place to build a block of flats”.

He added: “It will be sandwiched between one of the busiest stretches of Watling Street in a very small plot, near a very dangerous roundabout.

“I am sure it will cause more accidents. Especially since we don’t have a fire station, police station or ambulance station there anymore, that is not counter-productive.”

In her report, planning inspector Isobel McCretton said there is “no evidence to show the level of street parking would not be adequate to serve the development, or overflow parking would be such a demand.”

In response to claims the flats would not be for community use, she admitted the Radlett District Centre Key Locations Planning Brief is “ambiguous over whether community use should be significant in terms of the site as a whole.”

She added: “Although the fire station had an important function in the community in terms of the service provided, it was not a community building to which the general public routinely had access.”