Clean air campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debra has hit out at a Deptford development where air pollution is so high residents will be advised to keep their windows closed.

Future residents of the 56 flat and workspace development planned for 1 Creekside will be advised their health could be at risk and to keep windows closed when they are not home and during rush hour.

An air quality assessment found nitrogen dioxide levels were far above the legal limit.

According the the assessment: "With opening windows the developer should advise the future occupants that their health could be at risk due to relatively high levels of air pollution in the area. Such exposure can be avoided if windows are closed when the local roads are heavily trafficked, such as during the morning and afternoon rush hours, or during other high polluting episodes."

The scheme was given the go-ahead last month, and was covered in publications including the Independent, the Guardian and Sky News.

Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debra, whose daughter Ella died aged nine from acute respiratory failure, called the scheme’s approval “an insult.”

New evidence has linked Ella's death to air pollution.

The family lived near the busy South Circular Road in Hither Green.

But Lewisham Council’s strategic planning committee chair, Cllr John Paschoud, defended the two-tower development and hit out at the “poorly informed stories.”

“If the Guardian journalist had read the written evidence in the public reports considered by the planning committee, or listened to the discussion at the meeting, she would have realised that the council had required the developer to provide a ventilation system that will take clean air from the roof and deliver it to the first two floors of the flats,” he said.

“Of course this will be most effective in improving the air quality inside flats if windows are closed at times when pollution from vehicles is highest – and thus the advice to be given to future residents.”

He said the council was committed to improving air quality and had asked London Mayor Sadiq Khan to extend the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to cover the whole borough.

However the Ulez will not come into effect in Lewisham until 2021.

Ella Kissi Debra died in February 2013 after years of coughing fits and seizures. The attorney general has granted a second inquest into her death to investigate the impact of air pollution.

Her mother, Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debra, said: “The real impact of air pollution on health is not taken seriously. Ventilation is not good for children who already have asthma. 

“I find the councillor’s excuses rather lame,” she added.

The plans for 1 Creekside also include 11 London affordable rent flats – the most expensive type of social housing – and nine shared ownership flats to be built in one tower.

Objectors also raised concerns the separation could cause ‘poor doors’ with a petition racking up close to 300 signatures.

But Lewisham had “strong planning policies” to prevent ‘poor doors’ – a separate entrance for people living in less expensive apartments, Mr Paschoud stated.

Access to communal spaces will not vary between private and affordable flats because of a planning condition, he said.