New proposals to turn the Falmouth's former Four Winds pub site into an elderly care unit have been revealed after earlier plans for student accommodation were rejected by Cornwall Council.

The owner of the site, One Red Ltd, had previously submitted a planning application to build accommodation for 153 students over five storeys, but it was rejected by Cornwall Council on the grounds that it was not included in the council's developing site allocations document, the Allocations DPD and on its scale, which was "exacerbated by the lack of effective control on adjacent amenity."

The site is currently derelict, after a large fire in January burned down the former pub, which had been closed for months beforehand. Falmouth Town Councillors had also objected to the student accommodation, saying there had been no real change from a previous unsuccessful proposal.

Now One Red has submitted a request to the council for pre-application advice on two differing proposals to remove all the buildings on site and replace them with a dementia care home, which would create either 78 or 87 rooms across four floors.

The facility would include bedrooms, day rooms and a nurse station on each floor, plus two rooms for staff or relatives to sleep over.

In a brief description accompanying the application, the company has set out the plan as: "Removal of all existing buildings and the redevelopment of the site to accommodate a specialist elderly care unit, comprised of up to 87 beds with associated ancillary spaces."

Members of Save Our Falmouth, the pressure group which led objections to the student accommodation plans, have divided opinions on the new plans.

Joe Strange wrote: "Much rather this than 120 students," and Zara Radford added "better than student accommodation."

But Andrea McKenzie said: "There is already a care unit like this going up next year. Why don't they put a Premier Inn there. It's an ideal site for it."

The plans can be viewed at Cornwall Council's planning website using reference PA17/01265/PREAPP, but cannot be commented on as they are currently at the pre-application stage.