Plans for a 13-storey apartment scheme off Dublin's quays have been criticised by An Taisce because it will have a negative impact on Mellowes Bridge and the Liffey quays.

Flancrest Enterprises, owned by Michael McCabe and Edmond Moloney, was given permission by Dublin City Council to develop a site at the corner of Bridgefoot Street and Island Street in Dublin 8.

The scheme is located off Usher's Island and Usher's Quays and beside the Pier 19 apartment development.

The proposed scheme will incorporate 41 apartments, as well as 80sq m (865sq ft) of office space and 842sq m (9,063sq ft) of retail space.

It incorporates a six-storey block with a 13-storey element.

The 13-storey tower will have a "very significant" impact on the protected Mellowes Bridge and on the Liffey quays as a whole, according to An Taisce, who have appealed the scheme to An Bord Pleanála.

The proposed 13-storey development would constitute a major redefinition of this part of the Liffey quays and is premature pending the production of the Liffey Quays Framework Plan, according to the environmental group.

An Taisce described the proposed scheme as a "blocky, lumpy form, evocative of the 1960s brutalist style".

Conceding that the building is of "design merit as a piece of brutalist-influenced architecture", An Taisce said that the proposed building must be "seen in the context of the setpiece of the Liffey quays with its domestic-scale terraces, monumental historic buildings and classical bridges".

The scheme does not relate to or complement the special character of Mellows Bridge within the overall design of the Liffey quays, the group said. In addition, it argued that the scheme does not comply with the development plan's provision for tall buildings.