THE future of a fought-over piece of land with a controversial past has finally been agreed.

The land, on the corner of Palm Avenue and Maidstone Road, Foots Cray, will be redeveloped with a mixture of flats and houses.

Kelsey Housing Association has been given planning permission to build two semi-detached houses, 12 two-bedroom flats in a three storey block and four one-bedroom flats in a two storey block.

A feature of the new development is that a fifth one-bedroom flat will be used as an IT suite for five years.

The suite, paid for through the Cray Valley Regeneration Project, will provide supervised IT training for local people, run by Orpington College. It will then become residential again.

All of the vacant land at Palm Avenue was zoned for industrial development and residents fought to have it rezoned for houses.

In 1998, plans to build houses on the whole site was also refused.

Now part of the site has got planning permission for light industrial units and the rest has been rezoned for housing.

But Sidcup Councillor Mike Slaughter pointed out the area was prone to serious flooding with Maidstone Road often blocked by many inches of water.

Officers have promised to consult the Environment Agency about the problem.