A MASTERPLAN has been unveiled for the future redevelopment of Porthleven – and it includes a covered shopping promenade and market hall, new two-week arts festival and an amphitheatre that could even result in its own Simon Cowell-style TV series.

The man behind the big picture is, of course, none other than Trevor Osborne, who owns much of the port through his Porthleven Harbour & Dock Company, and while some of his vision has already been made public, other parts have never been revealed in such detail – until now.

If he pulls it off, the project that would arguably produce one of the biggest changes to the appearance of Porthleven – alongside the already well-publicised Innovation Centre/Studio – would be a complete overhaul of the first section of Commercial Road and part of Shute Lane.

A walkway of spaced columns supporting a roof - known as a colonnade - would line a row of new shops for local independent traders (and two art galleries that would lose their existing premises) along with a market hall for Cornish food producers.

Art loft studios would also be built, while a new restaurant and a courtyard for sculptures would be created in an area currently used for “uncontrolled parking."

Above the shops would be local artwork – with Mr Osborne’s idea being to hold a competition where local artists could submit proposals. And at roof-level he envisages a bronze sculpture of a bird in flight.

He has already commissioned an architect and is in talks with planning officers at Cornwall Council.

Another idea, currently on the backburner but with big ambitions, is for a 500-seater amphitheatre.

This, Mr Osborne had hoped, would be created from the disused quarry between the Wresting Fields and Beacon Crag Hotel, but the Coode Estate has a policy not to sell land. Alternative locations include the disused quarry area at Highburrow car park.

In a document most recently updated in August last year, Mr Osborne has written: “If it is pursued with grant aid, the project would provide Porthleven with a smaller version of the Minnack Theatre, encouraging strong links with music schools and the performing arts to the further benefit of the local economy as well as local community arts."

His plan is for the amphitheatre to be the setting for a “Porthleven Emerging Talent Festival” every July and August, working with the universities of Falmouth and Bath Spa, where third-year students could create eight or nine productions for paying audiences.

He adds: “The potential [is there] for this enterprise to attract a TV series ‘The Emerging Talent Show,’ to broadcast all eight or nine productions over eight or nine weeks’ viewing with the audience able to vote." Categories could include best production, best scenery, best singer, best actor and best plot etc.

Mr Osborne’s ideas are linked to developing a “Porthleven Creative Arts Community” to promote creative arts in the port and as part of this he also envisages a new two-week arts festival, along the same lines as the well-established Porthleven Food Festival.

He told the Helston Packet: "We mustn't be complacent...times change. One must look beyond the present to the future, to make sure we have a sustainable local economy.

"Porthleven is somewhere artists seem to be attracted to; it's already part of its character. Surely the right thing to do is accept that if we attract artists we attract other people and we attract prosperity."

Mr Osborne added he was "not a young man," saying: "That perhaps explains the number of matters I'm currently contemplating to take forward, because I won't always be here to take them forward.

"This is about encouraging the local economy."