Plans to overhaul a popular Highgate shopping parade are a “vast improvement but far from perfect”, concerned residents have said.

Members of Save Swain’s Lane Steering Committee, set up in response to the Swain’s Lane parade’s development, are inviting the public to come along to a meeting on Monday to “speak their mind” after getting a first look at proposals two weeks ago.

The meeting will take place at St Anne’s Church, Highgate West Hill, Highgate, from 7.30pm until 9pm, to discuss the plans, submitted by the site’s owner the Earl of Listowel, for two contemporary three-storey buildings.

Steering committee member architect Julian de Metz, 44, said the proposals were a “vast improvement” on plans to rebuild the parade as a four-storey block with a Waitrose, but were “far from perfect”.

A spokesperson for Lord Listowel’s design team said: “The final scheme will not only complement the buildings in the surrounding area, but will create something fresh for Swain’s Lane.”