The practice submitted plans in September to transform the 8,690m leisure centre site just west of Old Street station, with a mixed-use scheme including nearly 200 homes (50 per cent for social rent) for Islington Council.Levitt Bernsteins design replaced a 2017 competition-winning scheme by Pollard Thomas Edwards, which the AJ understands was deemed too expensive to deliver and did not include enough homes.But Islington residents insist the latest plans for the site, next to the Grade I-listed St Lukes Church, would squeeze existing public outdoor space. A petition against the loss of football pitches and community facilities has received more than 4,000 signatures. It claims the scheme would be destructive and would be an overdevelopment of the plot.AdvertisementLocal resident and urban designer Francis Moss told the AJ that the community felt powerless against a local authority seemingly determined to grant itself planning permission for a scheme that works against many of its own objectives and policies.Residents main grievances with the Levitt Bernstein plans centre around the scale and height of the proposed buildings, the loss of open space and the net loss of outdoor leisure space, removal of mature trees, and overall unacceptable change in the character of the area. Source:Levitt Bernstein (taken from planning documents)The proposed scheme consists of a new leisure centre, a medical centre and 198 new homes in two blocks arranged over seven, eight and 20 storeys including 100 council homes for social rent. The buildings would replace the existing Finsbury Leisure Centre and neighbouring Tim Ronalds Architects-designed Bunhill Energy Centre.A separate Open Space Assessment (OSA) submitted by HTA Design on behalf of Islington Council in September 2024 stated that the development would result in a 2,013m overall reduction in outdoor sports facilities and an overall net reduction of 683m in open space.Four existing football pitches would be demolished and four new, smaller, pitches built on the roof of the new leisure centre a move which the OSA says will provide overall higher-quality leisure facilities but residents feel would make the pitches inaccessible to the local community.AdvertisementMoss told the AJ: While we all support the need for more affordable housing, it cannot not come at the expense of essential community infrastructure for our children and the environment.Plans to redevelop the site have a long-running history going back to an initial consultation brought forward by the council in 2007, and including a competition to masterplan the site which was won by Pollard Thomas Edwards in 2016.Eva Guerra, local resident and member of EC1, the campaign group leading the opposition to the development, told the AJ that, in each of the councils proposals for the site, the balance has been off between seeing the site as a primary place for sports and leisure versus a place to develop and build housing.Guerra, a former architect, said the Levitt Bernstein proposal would see 'the destruction of rare social infrastructure' which forms the heart of a community in the central London borough.She added: Once [the existing open space is] gone and developed, its gone forever. This is not something that can be recovered or replaced.In November, footballer Les Ferdinand joined EC1s campaign to save the four existing football pitches threatened with redevelopment under the proposals.Guerra said that, if permitted, the scheme would set a horrible precedent for overdevelopment across the rest of the UK, given the governments 1.5 million homes target.Despite many consultations spanning almost two decades, Guerra said residents felt there had been a lack of meaningful engagement by Islington Council with respect to the plans and that the council had given residents the impression that it was going to go ahead with or without [your support].She added: At the moment we probably have a proposal that is the worst of all we have seen in the last 20-odd years.The Levitt Bernstein proposal has been in the pipeline since before May 2022, developed alongside ongoing discussions between the council, Levitt Bernstein, Islington planners, the GLA, Sport England, Historic England, and local residents and adapted following feedback from three design review panels.Islington Council told the AJ it had carried out a comprehensive programme of community engagement on the project before submission of a planning application in late September. Public consultations on the planning application are currently open and will remain open until a decision is made on the application in early 2025, the council confirmed.Councillor John Woolf, executive member for homes and neighbourhoods, said: With more than 15,000 people waiting for a council home in Islington and a leisure centre that's well past its best, were proposing the redevelopment of Finsbury Leisure Centre.Our proposals include building 100 much-needed council homes, a first-class leisure centre, and an NHS GP surgery, which wouldnt be possible without a taller building and the moving of the football pitches to the roof of the new centre.We have carefully considered the layout of the new buildings to minimise the impact on our neighbours, while the new rooftop football pitches will be higher-quality than the existing ones, and part of a whole leisure centre with much better facilities for everyone who uses it.This is the biggest investment in the areas public services for a generation and a unique opportunity to change thousands of lives.An expansive design team on the project includes Levitt Bernstein as architect, landscape architect and masterplanner, Pick Everard as project manager, HTA Design as planning consultant, and Evolve, Hoare Lea, Aecom, and Buro Happold in various consultancy roles.The site is next to the Grade I-listed St Lukes Church, designed by John James and Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in 1733, and on the edge of the St Lukes Conservation Area.A design and access statement explains: This scheme completes Islingtons vision for a civic square centred around the historic St Lukes Gardens while enhancing the setting of the adjacent St Lukes Conservation Area.Complementing the cultural and artistic offerings of LSO St Lukes to the south, health wellbeing facilities of Ironmonger Row Baths to the north and important opportunities for outdoor play at Toffee Park to the east the grouping of these and improved connectivity between them represents a significant public benefit.