New plans to overhaul a former hospital into almost 50 flats overlooking the sea have been branded “monstrous and brutalist”.

Ureco Property hopes to revamp Hythe’s St Saviour’s with a brown five-storey block – two metres taller than originally mooted.

Fresh CGIs show the developer’s multi-million-pound vision for the Seabrook Road site, where Spire Healthcare’s building stood before facing the bulldozers earlier this year.

But those objecting to the proposals, including Hythe Town Council, say the building will destroy neighbours’ privacy and ruin the hill’s vista.

The private hospital was shuttered in 2015 when Spire, a year later, applied to level the 1960s building and build 51 homes.

Shepway District Council, now Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC), approved the outline plans in 2016.

It paved the way for Ureco to propose detailed plans in a reserved matters application in 2022, with designs by Canterbury-based On Architecture.

Those blueprints included three new blocks containing 47 sea-facing homes, alongside another four in a converted building on the former hospital grounds.

However, new documents were put to FHDC in the summer of 2023 proposing changes to the plans – with the planning committee set to make the final call on October 10.

The new designs are by a different firm – Hollaway Studios, which is behind other local landmarks including Rocksalt and the F51 skate park in Folkestone.

In response to council’s comments on the designs, the developers rearranged their vision for the site, and have said they plan to make the main block 15m high, two metres taller than previously planned.

“The current proposals have sought to address all comments, whilst achieving a scheme that significantly enhances the previously consented outline application,” the developers write.

They add that the number of buildings has been reduced from four to three, compared to the approved 2016 scheme.

However, neighbours are not as enthused.

At a meeting of Hythe Town Council’s plans and works committee on Monday, neighbour David Ellerby made his case against the plans.

Mr Ellerby stressed that he and others fought against the controversial 150-home Princes Parade development nearby, to help protect the distinctive Hythe seafront.

Labelling the new St Saviours plans “monstrous”, he said: “It destroys our privacy and those of our neighbours.”

“We would be overlooked by 60 bedrooms. We’re looking for a compromise here – build this but keep it in a way that is sensitive to the area.”

Trevor Ballard, who also lives next to the site, told the committee the plans “differ significantly” from the ones approved in 2016, which he supported.

“It's got higher and they've moved it higher up the bank – it's just ridiculous,” he added.

The site sits on a “dramatic” upward slope exceeding 23 metres, according to the planning documents.

“Less than five metres from our boundary there will be a 15-metre tall block of flats containing 60 bedroom windows,” Mr Ballard added.

Speaking at the meeting on Monday, Green councillor Anita Jones, the town’s mayor, said: "I think the real issue is that it goes against the outline plans from 2016 which was broadly agreed with.

"[The plans are] really not appropriate for the area, completely out of keeping with everything else.

"We just need to make sure whatever they put in place actually works with the landscape and isn’t a blot on the landscape.

“[It is] really far too intensive, far too high and far too big, which is very similar to what we said last time."

In comments on the planning portal, Andrew Field wrote that the “brutalist” design of the project would “negatively impact the vista of outstanding natural beauty”.

In January 2023, Rob Kingdon wrote: “It is monstrous! Too big, too ugly, and will ruin the view for anybody behind, at the side or in front of it, and for anyone driving past.

“There are many smaller developments that look good and are in keeping with the area – this isn’t.”

Objecting to the scheme on Monday, Hythe Town Council’s planning committee branded the development “over-intensive”.

“The development is out of keeping and damaging to the street scene and local area.

“There is insufficient parking, and there are issues with the density of the building, designs and height.

“The development will have a detrimental impact on the local infrastructure,” a statement on its website says.

The plans are still under consultation, so residents can put their views forward on the online planning portal, and FHDC will decide in October.