Plans for a 12-storey block of flats near St Mary Redcliffe Church have been branded a “monstrosity” and rejected by councillors.

The apartment block would have provided 196 homes on a derelict site but a planning committee found the design was unacceptable.

Urban Tranquillity Developments had wanted to build on land at the corner of Somerset Street and Prewett Street just 150 metres from the Grade I-listed St Mary Redcliffe.

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The development, with 39 affordable homes and a sports facility, would have replaced the former Bell pub and Taviner’s Auction Rooms and other disused buildings, which police say have become a hot spot for crime and anti-social behaviour.

But committee members agreed with council officers that the building was so big and so close to existing apartment blocks that residents would it not get enough daylight and it would create a very “oppressive and overbearing feel” for the neighbours.

They also took issue with the bundled location of the affordable homes and a lack of accessible units.

Half of the affordable homes would have sat above the sports facility in a separate six-storey building and the rest would have occupied the two lower levels of the main building.

Labour councillor for Lawrence Hill Margaret Hickman said she was initially delighted by the application for one of the most deprived areas of the city.

“This particular site is sorely in need of redevelopment. It is a blight on the community,” she said.

“But I was actually really shocked by the monstrosity of the building. It’s just enormous. It would really impact really negatively on people who’ve been living there for a long time.”

Several councillors said they felt torn over the application given the city’s housing crisis.

Labour councillors for central ward Paul Smith and Kye Dudd, who asked for the application to be heard by the committee, accused council officers of writing a biased report.

In a statement supplied to the committee, they said: “We ask for the committee to give this development a fair hearing and to understand that the report has been compiled with the sole intention of blocking this development rather than giving a balanced view.”

Ranjeet Singh, director of Urban Tranquillity Developments, told the committee if the development was any smaller he could not afford to build it.

The committee heard that sports coaching and child care company Shine had agreed to run the sports facility.

There were around 40 objections to the application, including from the Bristol Civic Society and Historic England.

The development control A committee rejected the application six votes to three on Wednesday, November 28.

Amanda Cameron is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Read more: Plans to build 200 homes on derelict Redcliffe site