Campaigners opposing the size of a house being built on the site of Elstree's old Norwegian Barn hotel hope a Government planning inspector will support their objections.

Building work was halted on the eight-bedroom house in Edgwarebury Lane last autumn, after Hertsmere Borough Council noticed it was larger than the building it had given planning permission for in 2001.

The council issued an enforcement notice to the applicants, the Shah family, ordering them to stop building and comply with the planning permission, but they appealed and their case was heard by a Government inspector on Tuesday last week.

A neighbour, who lives next door to the Barn and spoke at the hearing, said he noticed the house, as it was being built, was wider and higher than permitted and looked more like a "warehouse" than a home.

The 45-year-old man, who has lived in his house for two years, added: "The house is so big, its going from eight bedrooms to 13, which means that there are going to be lots of people, more traffic on the road outside, more noise and it is taking away some of my views.

"If they win the appeal, every single person can build a house that is too big."

Elstree and Borehamwood Green Belt spokesman John Marks said: "It is larger than it should be, it is an obstruction to the view and it ought to come down."

Hertsmere planning officer Kim Gauld-Clark said the council was concerned the house, excluding the basement, was 20 per cent larger than had been given permission for. But the Shah family appealed against the enforcement notice on the grounds that: the building is acceptable in planning terms and should be kept; the council should have given them longer than six months to return it to how it was, and there were other steps that could be taken, such as changing the design of the house.

The inspector is expected to make a decision, within the next few weeks, whether to support the appeal and allow the larger house to remain, or to uphold the enforcement notice, which means the applicants will have to either modify the building to comply with planning permission granted in 2001, or demolish it.

The applicants submitted a planning application, last autumn, for a higher house with more bedrooms, windows, space for visitors' parking and additional floors in the basement, which was refused.