A heritage group has hit out against plans to build flats at the site of a disused petrol station in a designated conservation area.

SCP Architects wants to build 14 apartments and a commercial office at the site in Midcroft, Ruislip, which is currently used as a car wash.

The site falls within the Ruislip Village Conservation Area and is also an 'archaeological priority area'.

The £2.5million plans have been recommended for approval at a meeting on Tuesday, November 18, subject to a section 106 agreement, whereby the developer is required to give money to the local authority.

Eileen Bowlt, chair of the Ruislip Village Conservation Area Panel, said: “It's an extraordinary decision. If you read the policies governing conservation areas, this just goes against them completely. If this happens in one conservation area it could happen in all 31 in the borough of Hillingdon, which we always thought the council was so proud of.”

She added: “We are happy to see some development because it has been in a rather bad state for some time. It's the height and bulk of it that we object to, and that it doesn't fit in with the area.

“The primary objection is that it is totally uncharacteristic of the conservation area. It's higher than most of the buildings and it's not in the same sort of style.”

The developer wants to demolish the existing petrol station and erect in its place a four-floor building containing three studio flats and 11 two-bedroom flats.

The proposals also include a single commercial unit, possibly to be occupied by an architect, and underground car-parking.

If granted planning permission, building work could begin early next year and be completed within 12 months.

Architect Narinder Juttla, of SCP Architects, said his firm had made every effort to meet conservation officers' requirements, including by downsizing its proposals, which had originally included 18 flats.

He said: "We have been working with the conservation officers at the council very well and with the planning officers."

He added: “These local bodies, would they prefer that disused garage where they have got queues of cars being washed every day to a purpose-built building with offices on the ground floor and flats above?”

The village conservation area was designated in 1969 and contained the medieval core of the village, centred around Manor Farm and St Martin's Parish Church.

It was extended in 1973, and again in 2008, to include the High Street and parts of the surrounding residential areas.