THE district council is embarking on another legal battle with a traveller family living on rural Green Belt land near St Albans.

The authority is preparing papers for a High Court application for an injuction to remove 13 travellers including Bobby and Carol Smith from a former stables on the Lower Luton Road, between Wheathampstead and Batford.

Mr and Mrs Smith, previously living in Luton, have been living at Riverside Stables since buying the land and buildings two years ago.

They and their children and dependants live in temporary buildings or converted stable blocks and are now selling Christmas trees from their yard.

Two planning applications to convert the land to residential use have been refused by the council, both dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate after appeals.

Councillor Judy Shardlow, who represents Wheathampstead, said: “ "Our legal team have received very thorough and well considered advice.

“I hope that this action will proceed quickly. The Planning Inspectorate agrees with us that the gipsies must leave, this has all been going on for far too long.

”The Green Belt can not be flexible - if we allowed people to live on it like this, there would soon be none left.”

The situation is very similar to that of the Robb family, whose battle with the district council to be allowed to live on a yard on Green Belt land near Colney Heath took almost ten years, costing both the district and parish councils thousand of pounds before they finally left.

If an injunction is granted, anyone remaining at Riverside Stables will risk prison for contempt of court.

The Revew has asked Mr and Mrs Smith to comment but has not yet had a response.