A TV star has joined a fight to stop towering flats for homeless and troubled youngsters being built on the doorstep of retired clergy.

Graham Cole – who plays PC Tony Stamp in The Bill – added his signature to a 500-strong petition opposing plans for almost 100 homes next to Bromley and Sheppard’s Colleges.

He has thrown his weight behind more than 50 elderly residents, all retired Church of England clergy or their spouses, who live on Bromley town centre’s only Grade I-listed site.

As one of Britain’s oldest charities, it has been home to retired men of the cloth since 1666.

Now Mr Cole has backed protesters up in arms at a five-storey building proposed by Broomleigh Housing Association on former council land off Tweedy Road.

He said: "Bromley is a unique place and there are reasons why we come and live here. It is one of the last bastions of the green belt – and I and many others want to keep it that way.

"The people who live in these beautiful surroundings are benefiting from what is the godfather of social housing, but they will be overshadowed."

College residents fear their privacy will be breached by the development – but insist they are in favour of the concept of social housing.

They have collected 500 signatures and have the support of the Victorian Society, English Heritage and Bromley Civic Society.

Chaplain the Rev Andrew Sangster said: "The whole community is bitterly upset by these plans, which we say will destroy our tranquillity and dominate the skyline.

"We do not object to them in principle – it’s the sheer dominance of the buildings, which will be like having a skyscraper next door."

Bromley College was founded in 1666 by the will of the Bishop of Rochester, John Warner, to provide housing for "poor widows and loyal clergymen".

Sheppard’s College – five more houses – was founded in 1840 by a wealthy widow.

The plans are due to go before Bromley council later this month.