In October, members of the public were plagued by a “horrendous” noise that disturbed their sleep in the early hours of a Sunday morning.

The noise, described as sounding like gunfire, was traced to Network Rail, which had been using a piling hammer to drive in foundations for new overhead power lines on the railway tracks.

Hertsmere Borough Council and MP for Hertsmere James Clappison confronted the company after they received many complaints from residents.

The rail company apologised and promised to reduce the noise.

Meanwhile, a bride was left “extremely disappointed and angry” after a hotel nearly ruined her wedding day.

Chelsie Chinnick-Blair, 23, had arranged to have her wedding reception at the Elstree Premier Inn in Warwick Road on September 6.

However her relations with the hotel chain were beset by a catalogue of disasters, which resulted in the reception being cancelled just three days before her big day.

The day was saved by The Fairway Hall in Brook Road in Borehamwood, which hosted the reception.

A restaurant owner was left “absolutely devastated” after she was forced to close her thriving business.

Caroline Whitney was given six weeks' notice to shut 3 Greens restaurant at the Elstree Aerodrome in Hogg Lane in Elstree after her landlord Aldenham Aviation declined to renew her lease.

Mrs Whitney claims the aerodrome’s decision to terminate her contract had come “like a bolt from the blue”, as she had been led to believe her lease would be renewed.

However Aldenham Aviation LLP asserted the lease was a fixed term one which was only ever going to last five years.

Later in the month, two men were arrested as police, immigration officers and council staff staged a "succesful" crackdown on illegal vehicles and their drivers.

In Operation Raj, police cars and motorbikes took suspicious vehicles off the streets around Borehamwood and channelled them into the car park of Hertsmere Borough Council’s Civic Offices in Elstree Way.

Of those who were stopped, six motorists were reported by police for offences, three were issued with prohibition notices banning them from using the road until they were judged safe and fit to drive and 39 taxis were examined.