A controversial claim the council could be landed with a bill of up to £2.5 million to clear contaminated land in Carpenders Park has been rejected by a senior council official.

The claim emerged during a Three Rivers District Council meeting last Thursday, when Mr McCracken was speaking on behalf of development plans at Valley View Farm in Oxhey Lane.

Mr McCracken, speaking on behalf of the plans put in by Amba Developments Limited, said: “The site is contaminated.

“This is not a matter of what you can see, it is things which you cannot recognise with the naked eye.

“Specialists have examined the site and in their expert view, the site is seriously contaminated, with among other things, asbestos, arsenic and heavy metals”.

“The cost of remediation is estimated between £1.5m and £2.5m. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 imposes duties on you to secure the remediation of the site”.

However, Geoff Muggeridge, director of community and environmental services at the council said the land is not causing harm to people’s health.

He said: “"The Council's duties and powers in respect of the remediation of ‘contaminated land’, as defined by legislation, apply where it is in such a condition that significant harm to health is being caused.

“There has been no finding to date by this council, the county council or the Environment Agency that the land is in such a condition, despite some 16 years having elapsed since the site was the subject of unauthorised waste material dumping and enforcement action was taken.

“The site is not contained on the Council’s register of contaminated land that legislation requires it to keep."

The plans for 14 houses and shared sports facilities were unanimously thrown out by the council’s planning committee last Thursday.