The man behind Porthleven's controversial double yellow lines along the harbour has been given a month to apply for formal permission - or risk having them removed at his own cost.

Cornwall Council has announced it is to take action against Trevor Osborne, who actually owns Commercial Road, where the lines have been placed, through his Porthleven Harbour & Dock Company.

It has previously been stated, however, that as the road has full public access - both pedestrian and vehicular - without a traffic regulation order being granted the lines are not legal.

The council has now given Mr Osborne two options. The first is make a formal application for a traffic regulation order over the yellow lines that have been put down.

This will give a chance to look at all aspects of traffic management on the road and members of the public will be able to give their views on whether there should be lines.

The Harbour & Dock Company has been given one month to submit such an application.

If it does not then the second option is for the Highways Authority to remove the lines and then claim back the cost of the work from Harbour & Dock.

Mr Osborne has said he will be speaking with the Highways Authority "at the earliest opportunity."

The port's Cornwall councillor Andrew Wallis, who is also mayor, said: "No matter who you are, you have to follow the law and people do not have the right to just paint yellow lines wherever they think they can. We have rules for a reason.

"In discussing this issue with Highways and Cornwall Council’s legal department and because there has been a clear breach of the law, Cornwall Council is taking action against the Harbour & Dock Company. This is something I welcome."

He added that it was not an issue of whether there should be yellow lines on that road or not, but "about the a lawful process of placing parking restrictions and a proper consultation."

"This would have given the public and official bodies such as highways the ability of discussing the merits and disadvantage of placing lines along this stretch of road.

"From this, if there was a requirement of placing parking restrictions along this stretch of road, it would have been done legally and with the proper process and then enforceable," he said.

Mr Wallis described the action taken by Cornwall Council as "a sensible way forward."

He also pointed out that even double yellow lines do not stop all parking, as drivers with Blue Badges can park on them for up to three hours.

Alternatively, if an order is introduced banning all parking at any time, this also stops delivery vehicles from loading and unloading, resulting in an instant parking ticket if ignored - or a loading bay to become necessary.

Mr Osborne told the Packet: "I will be discussing this matter at the earliest opportunity with the Highways Authority and hope that this will hae a productive and positive outcome.

"In the meantime, I don't think it's helpful for Councillor Andrew Wallis to attempt to turn a discussion into a drama."

Last month he said he was trying to improve safety for pedestrians, after two incidents of people falling on the speed humps that had been designed to slow down traffic.

At the time Mr Osborne said: "I gave authority to my local team to take action to safeguard pedestrians. We did advise the council that we were undertaking to do this. We own the road, we maintain it.

"Unfortunately if the council are saying they won't enforce the double yellow lines that's for them to say."