A planning inspector has decided that the owners of a former Butterfly World site in Chiswell Green will have to remove vehicles stored there.

Butterfly World closed in 2015, and the site has since been used for the sales and storage of vehicles and vehicle parts.

But planning permission for the 27-acre Green Belt site had only been granted on the condition it was used for the butterfly tourist attraction – so St Albans City & District Council issued two enforcement notices in October 2022 giving the owners of the site six months to return it to its previous state.

Bud Rescue and Recovery Ltd appealed the notice, but in a decision made last week, the planning inspector upheld the original decision.

The inspector did, however, extend the period for returning the site to its former state to nine months, to give time for businesses “to seek alternative premises”.

Bud Rescue and Recovery said the site is used by 15 businesses and supports 65 jobs, but the inspector said there was “little to demonstrate a specific need for the types of development present on the site”, or that they need to be on this specific site.

Bud Rescue and Recovery argued that the effect of their development on the “openness” of the Green Belt site was less than that permitted by the council’s decision to grant permission for Butterfly World.

Only part of the originally proposed Butterfly World development – which included a research complex, visitor centre and café – was built.

The inspector found that there was “visual harm” as a result of the vehicle storage at the site and that there were not “very special circumstances” to allow for the Green Belt development.

Their report said that the area used by businesses at the site “has significantly increased” from that built on by Butterfly World, and includes “meadow, picnic and landscaping areas” designed to be “substantially free from development”.