An apartment block to rival Tolworth Tower's bulk could be built on the opposite side of Tolworth roundabout.

The 23-storey building could form part of Tesco's redrawn plans for the empty land by Charrington Bowl, where it proposes to build 800 homes.

The plans were unveiled yesterday.

More apartment buildings fall in height as they move away from Tolworth roundabout: from 12 storeys, to eight, to three or four.

David Curtis, of Princes Avenue, said: "The first impressions are we don't like the high-rise buildings.

"I guess because Tolworth Tower is that high, they can build it.

"I think the access to this place is going to be a problem."

Veronica Young, also of Princes Avenue, said: "They're going to have to integrate some schools, dentists, doctors in there - they're just necessary."

Children and teens in the community "absolutely need" a public-use space, she added.

Michael Hill, who lives on the Sunray side of Kingston Road, said: "The low-rise ones are fine.

"There's plenty of green space in there as well.

"I think this will be beneficial to the shops on the Broadway and also for the railway."

Surrey Comet:

The apartment buildings fall in height as they move away from Tolworth roundabout

Pamela Robson, of Hamilton Avenue, said: "I'm quite impressed so far. I quite like the look of it.

"It's an improvement on Tesco's, and these houses are needed.

"They seem to have tried to make it not too oppressive."

Architect Tom Gray, from Collardo Collins, who is working on the project, said: "A superstore like the one proposed in the previous scheme would generate a lot more traffic.

"It would obviously need a huge amount of parking and would have had a much bigger effect on the local traffic.

"The residential scheme will have an impact, but whatever you did with this site would have an impact."

On the subject of a new school, or expanded provision elsewhere, he said: "We're not ruling anything out."

Surrey Comet:

A bird's eye view of the proposed development, with Tolworth Tower in the top right hand  corner 

Spenhill has hired a dedicated education consultant to report on how much demand for school places will be created by the new development.

A community-use space will be designed into the scheme, the details of which will be hashed out between developers, councillors and residents.

Former councillor Rolson Davies, who campaigned against previous plans for a superstore at Tolworth, said the proposals were "horrendous".

He said: "It's far too dense, the whole development, and far too high. It's just ridiculous."

The new properties will be a mix of affordable homes, for-sale, and rented.

Specialist landlords will manage and let whole blocks.

Tolworth and Hook Rise councillor Vicki Harris said: "It's just awful for this area. It's a new village.

"There's no thought to the infrastructure that needs to support this.

"They have government policy and the [mayor of London's] policy on their side. It just rides roughshod over everything local policies want.

"Local democracy is dead and buried under this government and this mayor."

Council leader Kevin Davis said: "I would hope that there are going to be significant community benefits if we were to allow them to do that.

"Providing we can negotiate good things with them for the community, and of course that includes things like schools because that's going to be a desperate need, then I think the community have got to make a decision as to whether we want to have a tall building there."

Coun Davis said he would exercise "extreme caution" over the plans.

Kingston and Surbiton MP Edward Davey said: "This is massive over-development.

"We spent 10 years persuading them not to build a Tesco superstore on the roundabout.

"I just hope we don't have to spent 10 years persuading them that they have got to meet the needs of local people and not over-develop."