A huge skyscraper billed as Croydon's answer to the Shard has been branded "a completely inappropriate waste of space and resources".

The 66-storey One Lansdowne Road tower would bring the highest bar in Europe and a suspended glass-bottomed swimming pool to the town, if developers' ambitious plans come to fruition.

But the proposed £500m skyscraper was denounced by one critic this week as a "bloody awful" building that "does nothing for the ordinary person."

Developers Guildhouse UK and Rosepride have promised the "iconic" development would "put Croydon on the map".

LAST WEEK: Swimming pool in the sky and Europe's highest bar planned for 'iconic mini-Shard' skyscraper in Croydon

But Councillor Sean Fitzsimons, who sits on the council's housing scrutiny committee, said: "It is completely inappropriate waste of space and resources.

"We need to build homes for middle-income and lower-income families, not for foreign buy-to-let investors.

"It is aimed at people who are effectively ripping us all off because we will end up having to pay higher housing benefit costs to those people who can't afford housing in their local area. 

"And it is a diversion of resources into a vanity building project that would be better used for building affordable homes for local families.

"It drives up land values, it drives up rents, and it does nothing for the ordinary person who is walking around the streets of Croydon today with no money in their pocket because they are paying out £1,200 to £1,500 a month for poor-quality private rented accommodation."

David Hudson, chief executive of Guildhouse, said the 220m skyscraper - which would be Croydon's tallest building and one of the highest residential blocks in the UK -  would "become an attraction".

He said: "Because we are going to be so high, with views of London and views of the south, we are going to have a viewing gallery at the very top of the building to get people into the building and get it to become an attraction.

"We are trying to be a mini-Shard, if you like. It will put Croydon on the map."

The developers initially wanted just five per cent of homes in the development to be affordable and had offered to fund another 10 per cent elsewhere in the borough.

But they have now offered to put all 15 per cent on-site following pressure from Croydon Council.

Coun Alison Butler, cabinet member for housing and regeneration, said she was "always pleased to see new and inventive design in Croydon" but added the council was "quite sure about its position" on the affordable housing quota.

She added: "I'd much rather see a smaller, better-designed building with affordable housing that really will happen."

But Fairfield councillor Helen Pollard, in whose ward the skyscraper would sit, praised developers' proposals, adding: "It creates another reason to come to Croydon and that's got to be a good thing."

Plans include 160,000sq ft of office space, plus 184 studio apartments, 419 one-bedroom flats, 334 two-beds, 12 three-beds and 12 penthouse suites.

The suspended pool, which would be only the second of its type in the country, was the suggestion of the China Building Technique Group Company, who it was announced last month would construct the tower.

The plans would require the demolition of a hostel, a hotel, a gym, a café, a bar, a restaurant and offices in Lansdowne Road and Wellesley Road.