A landlord said he will lose business after the council was granted a compulsorily purchase order for land for the health campus scheme.

Watford Borough Council has secured a compulsory purchase order (CPO) to buy several metres of land at the front of De-Beers in Willow Lane, west Watford.

But owner Stuart Taylor, who has managed De-Beers House for 10 years, said residents in the apartments will no longer be able to park outside.

The 45-year-old, who lives in Rose Gardens, said: “I am trying to provide accommodation for the people of Watford and this is a setback.

“It will be make it more difficult for me to find tenants to live there because when they come down to view the place, they want to see good facilities including parking and they won't take up tenancy.”

The council will now be able to purchase the land in Willow Lane to allow them to build a pavement for the new link road, which is due to open this autumn.

James Pereira QC, speaking on behalf of the council said in his closing remarks at an inquiry in January last year: “Lying behind the objection is a desire to strike a deal with the council for the transfer of land that it owns to Mr Taylor which he wants in order to unlock an unrelated development site.”

However, the council rejected this deal, saying it could leave them open to legal action.

The Department for Communities and Local Government decided last week that the council should be granted the CPO.

Mr Taylor said although he would probably be compensated, he thought the scheme was in the wrong place.

He said: “I have always thought the Warner Brothers studio site would be better.

“But it has all gone too far now and too much money has been wasted on this site.”

Politicians passed plans for 681 new homes, space for regeneration of Watford General Hospital, retails units and safeguarding land for the expansion of Laurance Haines primary school in September 2014.

They had granted access to build on the Farm Terrace allotment land, but that was overturned by the High Court.

The council went back to the former Secretary of State Eric Pickles for permission to build on the allotments in January last year after the High Court blocked his decision to grant approval for a second time.

In the next 20 years the Health Campus scheme is expected to create 1,000 new jobs.