Families have lost their campaign to stop development on their housing estate in London’s overcrowded East End which they fear is going to destroy their children’s only play area.

Plans to redevelop part of the troubled Burdett Estate at Limehouse have been given the green light by Tower Hamlets Council.

A compulsory purchase order was agreed by the cabinet to expand the school next door onto the estate and for Poplar Harca social landlords to replace two blocks of flats with a larger housing complex.

The order follows protests with a petition to the Town Hall in March by tenants who said the scheme will be built on the only recreational space their children have in the intensely built-up urban neighbourhood along Burdett Road.

The order gives the council powers to buy up land to extend the adjoining St Paul’s Way Trust school, which already has planning approval with £13 million committed by the local authority.

It involves demolishing two blocks, Printon House and Linton House, to make way for a mixed-use complex with the school on the ground floor and mixed tenancy housing above.

Some 450 primary school places are being added to St Paul’s Way, including a nursery, to cater eventually for 1,650 children between ages four and 18.