Gary Neville has admitted his £200m plans for two bronze skyscrapers in Manchester city centre have “failed miserably” in the wake of huge opposition from heritage groups.

The former England footballer faced a fierce backlash for his plans to bulldoze three historic buildings to make way for luxury flats, hotels, offices and restaurants.

On Wednesday Neville said he had asked Manchester city council not to consider the application in its current form and that it would undergo further refinements.

The 700,000 sq ft scheme, fronted by Neville and his former Manchester United teammate Ryan Giggs, was branded a “planning disaster of a magnitude not seen in decades” by heritage bodies last month.

Speaking at the Mipim conference in Cannes, Neville joked of the criticism: “I was talking to Giggsy on the way over and saying this development game is like playing away at Liverpool every week.

The proposed towers ‘would erase different layers of this area’s history, irreparably damaging the special character’, according to Historic England.

“There is no doubt we have not pleased everybody. We have tried to listen and made many, many changes.

“We have currently asked Manchester city council to not determine our application because we are going to make further refinements to the project.

“There is no point in me pointing to underused streets and then in six to seven years we deliver this project and still have underused streets, so we will change.”

The two bronze towers would include a 200-bed five-star hotel, 153 luxury flats, bars, restaurants, shops and a synagogue.

Giggs and Neville insist the work would transform the St Michael’s area near Manchester town hall and the Central Library.

They would also involve the demolition of a 1950s synagogue, a 1930s police station and an 18th-century pub believed to be the only nearby building with a direct link to the 1819 Peterloo massacre, which led to the creation of the Guardian.

Neville, now a TV pundit and property developer, previously went on the defensive and insisted the project would not be “taken off track” by the opposition from groups including Historic England.

The former defendersaid on Wednesday: “Manchester deserves a world-class development like St Michael’s.

“We believe that in a city that aspires to be global, the best of old and best of new can live together, however we are going to make further refinements. It has to be perfect for Manchester.”

Ryan Giggs (left) and Gary Neville unveil their proposed Manchester development in July 2016. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

The plans, first unveiled last July, were due to be considered by Manchester city council’s planning committee in the summer but that will now be scrapped.

Historic England, the government’s heritage body, said the former footballers’ planned skyscrapers would “erase different layers of this area’s history, irreparably damaging the special character of the surrounding conservation area”.

Four other heritage groups – the Ancient Monuments Society, Save Britain’s Heritage, the Twentieth Century Society and the Victorian Society – went further and asked Sajid Javid, the communities and local government secretary, to “call in” the planning application if it had been approved by the council.

The minister can call in planning applications where they may have wider effects beyond the immediate locality, cause significant regional or national controversy or cause potential conflict with national policy.

These applications are then subject to a public inquiry presided over by a planning inspector, who will make a recommendation to the secretary of state, who will then decide the application instead of the local planning authority.