Opponents of the Council's plans to redevelop Twickenham Riverside have called for a key element of the scheme to be scrapped.

The Twickenham Riverside Trust is fighting to block the Council's scheme at a planning inquiry which began today – Tuesday.

The Trust is fighting a Council Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) what would allow it to remove the existing Diamond Jubilee Gardens and café.

Much of this site would make way for one of two new apartment blocks that will provide 45 homes, hospitality and commercial outlets.

The Council is offering the Trust a new – larger – area of public open space to replace the Diamond Jubilee Gardens. This would include opening up the riverside to pedestrians and cyclists, while removing the existing car park.

The Trust has focussed its opposition to the scheme on a call to drop a plan to build a five storey – 21m high- apartment block with a gastropub and public toilets and offices on the ground floor.

Much of this site would make way for one of two new apartment blocks that will provide 45 homes, hospitality and commercial outlets.

Chairman of the Trust, Ted Cremin, condemned the Wharf Lane block in an opening statement to the inquiry. He said removing it from the scheme would allow the creation of a larger park area.

However, the Council insists that the block, with the homes that it will include and the other commercial elements, including the pub, are vital to ensure the financial viability of the scheme.

Mr Cremin claimed to be speaking for the people of Twickenham in raising objections. This is rejected by the Lib-Dems, who have long made delivering the Riverside scheme a key priority and won a landslide victory at the Local Elections in May last year.

He said: "The Trust came into being in 2011 and one of its purposes – as underpinned by our formal objects – is to preserve and protect Public Open Space on Twickenham's historic, unique Riverside, not only in that part of the riverside known as the Diamond Jubilee Gardens but more broadly across all the riverfront environs, and to press for their enhancement."

Mr Cremin said the Trust supported the idea of creating a new, open and welcoming riverside, but the only issue was how this will be achieved.

He said: "We clearly have differences on how this ambition for an enhanced Riverside can and should be realised, but ultimately, we are all focused on the same aim - to more fully realise the potential of this unique riverside site for the benefit of the Public, now and into the future.

"And it is therefore with much genuine regret - regret at the waste of opportunity, of talent, of time, of money - that here we all are, at this Public Inquiry, sitting at opposing tables, facing each other across a chasm of shared ambition. It shouldn't be like this. It needn't be like this. And yet here we are."

On the Wharf Lane building, he argued that an analysis of public comments on the scheme reveals strong objections.

He criticised the fact it is 21m high when experienced from the riverside, saying: "Make no mistake. This is an enormous building."

And arguing it would blot out the sun, he said: "The Wharf Lane Building will result in the loss of many hundreds of hours of sunlight, year round, compared to the largely shadow-free space of the existing Open Space both in the Gardens and down on the Embankment.

"The vast amount of shadowing caused by placing a building right between the afternoon and evening sun and the proposed Open Space introduces premature 'sunsets' 365 days of the year."

The Trust will give evidence to the inquiry that it believes the alternative open space it is being offered is inferior to the existing gardens and café. It is also critical of the initial loss of trees caused by the building.

He said: "The Scheme would have a devastating environmental impact, with 65 of 66 established trees felled, resulting in the loss of nearly 200m2 of tree canopy from the Gardens alone. Every single living thing on the Scheme Land. Gone. Erased. One tree left standing.

"It's going to take decades from the Riverside to recover. If indeed, it can be argued, it ever will."

The future of the Riverside has been at the centre of wrangling for 40 years with a series of schemes announced only to be abandoned.

Mr Cremin accused the Council of rushing its own plan but argued they were giving a greater priority to 'Getting it done' than 'Getting it right'.

He argued there was support for pushing ahead with a scaled down scheme that would 'remove the parking, remove the Wharf Lane Building, address the dereliction and in doing so create a true riverside park, a 'whole site solution' that represents a genuine destination and is of real and lasting benefit to generations to come'.

The inquiry is due to run throughout June, while a decision is not expected for many months.