Kent historian Christoph Bull has called on councillors and architects to raise the bar for development, and not obliterate Gravesend with "ugly, boring and Stalinist" blocks of flats.

Mr Bull spoke out in advance of a critical Gravesham planning meeting this week, which will focus on three major flat building schemes at Horn Yard and Market Square car parks, M-Block in Bath Street, and the new Clifton Slipways development, along with a new sports centre at the former Fleet Leisure site in Northfleet.

He hoped councillors would take a firm stance on ensuring quality design and bringing Gravesend back in touch with the River Thames, but feared the plans would lack imagination and the town could end up looking "like Croydon."

"In a historical context, my view is that I would personally not like to see development in Horn Yard or any of these areas," he said ."The river is almost completely blocked out by development as it is, so the town will lose all connection with why it exists.

"As far as Clifton Slipways and the former maternity unit is concerned, my worry is Gravesham council, like most councils, tend to go with buildings that are ugly, boring and which stain very easily after four or five years, so that the whole of our community will end up looking like Croydon, which is something we don't want.

"What annoys me really is not that there's development – of course there's going to be development, we can't preserve the town like some plant in a jar – but what I'm saying is generally I suspect if we look at the drawings they will be boring block Stalinist architecture; the same old, same old.

"The council should say 'that's not good enough, we want decent design that is modern but not brutalist, ugly and boring.'"

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And he said architects themselves needed to take an honest look at what they were presenting, and ask themselves if it's acceptable.

"Architecture is an incredibly important part of society because we end up living with it," added Mr Bull. "These architects don't live with it. One of the worst examples is Thamesgate Shopping Centre and the Civic Centre. They're designed by architects who on the weekend go back to their 16th Century Wealden house in Sussex and don't have to live with what they've given us.

"It's very difficult. I don't want pretty chocolate box cottages but I just want something with more imagination."

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