Angry residents have described the proposed construction of a massive five-story 24-hour self storage building as hugely inappropriate for the area.

Lambeth Council received 160 objections to the plans by Access Self Storage to build the facility on the former Ministry of Defence building in Streatham High Road. Many of these concerns were aired at a meeting last Tuesday.

The company wants to make the building about two and a half times the gross floor area of the existing buildings. It would consist of 8,155sq m of self storage space and 1,839sq m in office space, but would only provide three on-site car parking spaces. The application also proposes to create vehicle access points in the adjacent Kempshott and Penistone residential roads.

Lindsey McCausland, who lives in Kempshott Road, said the development would block daylight out of many of the surrounding houses. "There would be an enormous sense of enclosure," she said. "Amongst my neighbours I haven't come across any effective support for the scheme. It is ugly, inappropriately huge and ill thought-out in terms of parking.

"It's in the wrong place - it's an industrial development in a residential area."

She was also worried about lorries turning into the site from the road safely, especially with two nurseries nearby.

Streatham South Councillor David Malley said the building would be "overbearing and adversely impact people in nearby roads". He said: "No one is fighting to protect what is there but people want to improve the appearance of the site."

He thought the lack of sufficient on-site parking would cause vehicles to spill onto the nearby roads, which are often already packed with cars.

And Streatham Wells Councillor Julian Heather said the "stark and nasty" building would look like a prison at the Kempshott Road end.

A spokesman for Access Self Storage said the company is looking at ways to respond to the concerns raised at last week's meeting.

"Access Self Storage is very keen to work with the community and act as a good neighbour," he added.

The application is expected to be decided at a planning committee on March 11.