The man behind a vision to bring new jobs to Porthleven has said he will go back to the drawing board after designs for a new building were declared “monstrous.”

Trevor Osborne has promised revised drawings for the town council to consider at its April meeting, taking into account issues raised last Thursday at a planning meeting on the proposed Innovation Building for the shipyard.

This would contain work units expected to cater for an estimated 70 people, with Mr Osborne telling the meeting: “We’re looking for local people. In an ideal world it would be a swarm of creative people working in one area, exchanging ideas.”

The building would also house an internet café – which Mr Osborne said he hoped to encourage Origin Coffee to run and move out of the Brew House down the road, to free up that building for another retailer – as well as a bus shelter, showers and public toilets.

The council heard that while local people would have free access to the toilets, visitors might be charged to use them, with Mr Osborne saying: “They have to be run to a very high standard. It isn’t difficult to work out a way of giving out a card [to locals].”

Resident Ian Parsons said his main concern was the size and location of the proposed building, which he described as in a “dominant position in the historic harbour.”

He added: "I’m not against the use or the building itself, apart from the design of it.”

Describing it as “quite monstrous,” Margaret Roberts agreed: “It just looks as though we’re flopping a Tate Gallery in the middle of a little historic village.”

She was also concerned about where anyone working inside the building would park.

Alan Richards, secretary of Porthleven Fishermen’s Association, said the main objection of boat owners was access out of the yard and onto the slipway, which currently would be "virtually impossible" to turn in and reverse a trailer and boat. It has since been confirmed that wider access will be included in new designs.

Responding to the concerns raised, Mr Osborne said: “The character of Porthleven is that every building is different. That is why people come here.

“In the 40 years I’ve been trying to improve this place, what we haven’t succeeded on is getting jobs for the people of this village. This is a very valuable project to be doing.”

With regards to the concerns over its scale, Mr Osborne said: “I think I shall probably ask our architects to slightly reduce the size and move it slightly closer to the coffee shop.”

He has since said the height would be comparable to his Celtic House offices, with the footprint taking up around 15 per cent of the open area of the shipyard.

Over parking, he said there were various options, including land at Tolponds, and has since confirmed that ten car parking spaces would be reserved in the shipyard, which is not actually a public parking area.

It has been confirmed that the new designs will feature the building as a pale grey colour, rather than the intended blue, which was one of the issues that divided opinion most at a recent public consultation hosted by Porthleven Harbour & Dock Company.

Architect Duncan Isherwood pointed to the wood of Falmouth’s National Maritime Museum as an example of what it could look like.

He also said that the proposed tower for the Innovation Building had been removed from the plans and instead a sliding glass panel would give access to the roof. In a response to a question from councillor Trevor Toms, Mr Isherwood confirmed that it would not be possible to give disabled access onto the roof this way.

At the meeting councillors stressed that at that time they could only vote on the plans before them.

As a result, they unanimously recommended refusal on the grounds of size and scale, lack of adequate parking, what they saw as lack of an adequate bus stop, “inadequate” highway provision and access to the slipway and concerns over it being Disability Discrimination Act compliant, but added that they would welcome new drawings to discuss.

Speaking after the meeting Mr Osborne described the debate as "deeply disappointing," but stressed he would "not be deterred."