Plans for a new affordable housing block in Eltham have been approved by Greenwich Council despite locals claiming the scheme would ‘dominate’ the local landscape.

The project will deliver 62 new flats to the area in an L-shaped building between five to seven storeys-tall.

The homes included in the scheme on Riefield Road will be available at 65 per cent of market rent levels.

The new project, put forward by Greenwich Council under its affordable housing developer Meridian Home Start Limited, will see the vacant social housing block currently on the site being demolished.

A series of landscape improvements are also planned for the area including a courtyard garden for residents and new trees.

The topic was discussed at a planning board meeting for Greenwich Council on April 16.

Conservative Councillor Pat Greenwell, representing the Eltham Town and Avery Hill ward, said she was in support of the vacant site being redeveloped but not in the scale proposed by the current application.

She cited concerns that the turquoise coloured cladding of the scheme would be at odds with the architecture of the nearby buildings.

Cllr Greenwell said at the meeting: “It will destroy the amenity of the local residents in the Riefield Road area and some of these buildings were built in the 1930s and we’ve seen from some of the pictures that it will still dominate the landscape in a negative way if you’re looking from down Riefield Road.”

A similar scheme to the current application had been refused by the council’s planning board in August 2022.

The planned building stretched up to 9 storeys-tall and was cited as being too high and inappropriate for the location.

Local resident Charlie Davis said that most people wanted to see the site being brought back into full use sympathetically.

However, he said the current scheme was not something the community could be proud of and described it as a scaled down version of the ‘monstrosity’ that was previously rejected.

A council officer said at the meeting that while the current scheme had received 81 objections, the previous proposal had nearly 500 written objections and a petition against it including up to 5,000 signatures.

Officers said in their report that the site’s unique location justified the proposed building’s height and would add to the distinctiveness of the area.

Charles Dymond, associate director of Cartwright Pickard, said the building’s design had been made to retain much of the surrounding greenery, allowing it to envelop the new structure.

He said the colour scheme for the development was selected to blend in with the natural backdrop of the area, but that the architects were open to reviewing the colour of the project.

Mr Dymond said: “We believe this is a comprehensive and high quality proposal which successfully balances the acute need for new affordable homes in the borough with the protection of local character views and the environment.”

The planning board voted to grant planning permission for the housing scheme on Riefield Road.

The committee advised the developers to consider replacing the turquoise colour proposed in the project with one that was more sympathetic to the surrounding landscape.