Amended plans for a student tower block above Birmingham’s historic Central Fire Station will still make the city look a “laughing stock”, according to the council’s conservation watchdog.

The Watkins Jones Group presented fresh plans for the Lancaster Circus development after their first attempt was roundly derided by the conservation groups, English Heritage and Government architectural watchdog CABE.

In a second appearance before the council’s Conservation and Heritage Panel, the architects revealed how plans for a 29-storey student apartment block had been improved.

Instead of demolishing one side of the triangular fire station complex to make way for the tower, they have now decided to build it inside the drill yard.

Now the only parts facing demolition are within the yard, including a control building. The tower has also been re-aligned to minimise its impact on views from Corporation Street.

The Central Fire Station was built in 1935 and was unusual as it included family apartments for firefighters. It now faces a future as accommodation for 816 students, plus shops, cafes and commercial units.

Earlier designs, unveiled last summer, were described as “disastrous” and the tower “disproportionate”.

The panel concluded that while much had been done to improve the design, they still found the revised scheme ‘ridiculous’.

George Demidowicz, of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society, said: “This tower should not be on the same site.