Controversial plans to create 48 new homes on the site of a derelict Walthamstow cinema are set to be approved next week.

An application to demolish the Dominion cinema in Buxton Road and construct an apartment block is expected to be granted by Waltham Forest council’s planning committee next Tuesday (May 3).

The proposal, submitted by developers Southern Home Ownership, would see the construction of a C-shaped building, housing 48 flats across five storeys.

In total, 21 per cent of the development will be designated as affordable housing.

The application has proved controversial among Walthamstow residents and 78 complaints were lodged with the council during a consultation period last year.

Concerns raised include the appearance and height of the new apartment block, as well as the loss of the cinema’s Art Deco architecture.

One complaint read: “The Art Deco design is to be replaced with a bland, generic building that poorly represents the aspirations of the time in which it was built.

"The iconic building would be lost.”

However, council officers concluded the new development would be an “improvement” on the current building and the character and appearance of the area: “would be preserved”.

The Dominion building was last used in 1996 as a Mecca Bingo Club.

Since the club closed, the property has fallen into disrepair, with windows boarded up and graffiti daubed on its walls.

A cinema first opened on the Buxton Street site in 1909. However, in 1931, the original building was demolished and replaced by the Dominion.

It remained as a cinema until 1961, before its conversion into a bingo hall.

In recent years, campaigners had made calls to bring the cinema back into use as a theatre or community art space.

However, its plight has often been overshadowed by battles over the future of the Grade II listed former EMD cinema on Hoe Street.