For many homeowners, it is their worst fear.

Their idyllic view, their noise barrier, their privacy, destroyed in a weekend.

It is a nightmare the residents of Bridgefoot Cottages - which lie along Watling Street, the ancient Roman road, in Hertfordshire - know all too well and have endured for years after travellers arrived to fell the thick woodland at the end of their gardens.

In 2022, men on diggers razed the trees to the ground without permission, exposing the cottages to a busy main road and their residents to foul-mouthed invaders.

Two years later, after having their retrospective planning application rejected by Hertsmere council, the travellers on the site were given five more years to remain 'temporarily' by the Government's Planning Inspectorate.

Key to the successful appeal was their claim that a mother, Theresa Lane, and her five children needed a settled base for their family to live.

An 11-year-old child, who has Down's Syndrome, was brought to the Planning Inspectorate's hearing, where it was argued she needed to live near a specialist school.

But those at the hearing said it was unclear what connection the girl had to the family.

The site, pictured through scaffolding from a neighbouring cottage, was previously filled with greenery

But in 2022 travellers arrived and razed the parcel of green belt land to the ground

Men on diggers cut down the trees and levelled the plot without permission, allegedly hurling abuse at residents nearby

The travellers applied for retrospective planning permission which was granted for five years, until 2029, by the Government's Planning Inspectorate

One Hertsmere resident who attended the Planning Inspectorate hearing told the Daily Mail the child 'was not acknowledged' by the traveller family and 'did not show any indication that she knew them'.

'It felt like she was ignored by the applicant party.'

They added there had been a 'general absence of common sense' over the decision to grant temporary planning permission and said they had no doubt the family would 'produce the girl again' were there to be a further hearing.

Ms Lane also claimed to be a widow with four more sons, three of whom were adults.

She was represented at the hearing by Matthew Green, a former Liberal Democrat MP who is now a planning consultant specialising in traveller applications.

He boasts of being 'one of the country's leading experts at identifying ways to maximise the potential of existing land uses, particularly in terms of establishing and intensifying residential mobile home parks'.

More than two years on from the awarding of temporary planning permission, neither Ms Lane nor her children have ever been seen, neighbours told the Mail.

A single man in his 30s is the only person believed to be living at the site - a condition of the temporary planning permission was that only Ms Lane and her family were allowed to live there.

The front gates are chained and padlocked every time he enters or leaves the site, which has stumped council enforcement officers who allegedly told residents they cannot force entry to question the travellers over alleged rule-breaking.

A Planning Inspectorate spokesman said inspectors 'fully' consider evidence and legislation during appeals, adding enforcement action was a council responsibility.

Gates blocking entry to the site are chained and padlocked, while council-issued bins sit outside

Meanwhile neighbours said they had been subjected to abuse and deception from the moment their unwanted visitors arrived.

As the trees were felled in 2022, one - who, like others who spoke to this newspaper, did not want to be named fearing retaliation - said they were approached while in their own garden by men working on the site.

They were hit with a barrage of 'so many things, so many swear words,' including: 'You f***ing c***, get out of the way.'

Soon after, another neighbour approached and was told they could buy the land for £450,000 should they wish.

The plot had previously been purchased by Patrick Sweeney, Theresa Lane's brother, in 2021 for £39,000.

One year to the day after being given temporary permission for a small camp near the plot's entrance, vans arrived to surface the entire site with aggregate material similar to tarmac.

Once the site was surfaced, a static caravan was positioned in the far corner, along the border of a neighbouring garden.

Images seen by the Mail showed a children's slide and trampoline yards from the caravan, with only a small fence between - children as young as six live in the cottages.

Soon after the caravan was left on the site, the cottages' residents noticed their water bills soaring - they quadrupled within months, costing them hundreds of pounds.

The 200-year-old cottages all shared a single shared water main, to which they believe the travellers had connected themselves.

Blue pipes also sprang up from the ground on the site, ready to be connected to septic tanks despite the temporary planning permission limiting them to a single mobile home and a touring caravan.

When the Mail visited the site after the recent blistering heatwave, the travellers' grass was a lush green where neighbours' lawns browned under the beating sun.

A single man in his 30s is the sole resident of the site, neighbours believe, despite only the traveller family being allowed to live there

The travellers have now submitted a new planning application for two touring caravans and two static homes to be allowed on the site, which could be given the green light by Hertsmere council imminently.

But a resident said alleged breaches of the condition attached to the temporary planning permission - including restrictions on who can live there - had not been addressed.

A core condition of the original temporary permission was that the site be returned to its previous state by the end of the five-year period.

The resident said: 'If planning conditions can simply be ignored without meaningful investigation or enforcement, then what is the purpose of imposing them in the first place?

'I remember when this land was full of mature trees and wildlife. Seeing it cleared was upsetting, but what's more frustrating is the feeling that the safeguards the Inspector put in place don't seem to be being upheld.'

Hertsmere council said its planning enforcement was 'aware of allegations relating to breaches of conditions including occupancy restrictions'.

It said the enforcement case was on hold while the new planning application was considered.

'Once the application has been determined, the planning enforcement team will consider the next appropriate action,' a spokeswoman said.

Within the latest application is a reference to the site as 'grey belt', Labour's policy introduced under former housing secretary Angela Rayner which loosened the rules for building on 'poor quality' green belt land.

The Watling Street plot has been green belt for at least 45 years - until recently it was a 'beautiful haven for birds and wildlife' - and has seen successive planning applications rejected over decades.

'It's just a mockery, isn't it?' were the words of one resident.