The new landlord of Porthleven's Atlantic Inn has claimed that unless he is allowed to build a house on its car park the pub will have to close.

This is what is stated in a planning application for the land in Peverell Terrace, where the Atlantic Inn wants to build a three-bedroom house with two parking spaces and a terraced garden.

In a paragraph marked "statement from applicant" in the accompanying design document, it says: "Eighteen pubs per week are currently closing due to higher beer duty, rising business rates and VAT. The supermarkets are selling beer as loss leaders.

"The Atlantic Inn has only survived through private cash injection, which is no longer available. The only way the pub can continue to trade is for the development of the car park. Without this, the pub will close and the pub will look to redevelop into residential housing."

The documents from architects RA Design also states: "This area is currently a car park which very rarely get used by users of the Atlantic Inn due to its awkward shape and layout and also most of the people visiting the pub are living or staying within walking distance."

Previously Mr Allnutt asked for pre-application advice from Cornwall Council, in which officer Martin Jose raised concerns over the loss of the parking area and bin store, but if overcome he could "offer some support to a scheme." A full planning application has now been made.

After meeting on Thursday Porthleven Town Council objected to the development, due to the size and scale of the proposed building and its "detrimental impact on the area," describing it as "overdevelopment."

Cornwall Council's highways development team raised the lack of dedicated pub parking that would be left, but noted there were a number of car parks within an 800m walking distance, which officially classed it as a "walkable neighbourhood," adding that there was also on-street parking and a number of similar places in the village operated this way.

However, further clarification was needed over whether there would be enough space behind the retained bin storage for a vehicle to both enter and leave in forward gear.

There are 11 letters of objection on the Cornwall Council website, including from Jo Stephens, who described the applicant's claims over the use of the car park as "simply untrue."

She wrote: "The Atlantic Inn attracts an older clientele, many of whom have to drive there and could not walk to and from the Shrubberies Car Park, my disabled mother-in-law being one of them. The car park is extremely busy and has usually got six or seven cars in it - where would these now go on an already heavily congested road?"

She added that building in front of the "iconic views" would remove the pub's "unique advantage over its competitors."

Mr M White agreed that "cars parked there all the time" and the parking area allowed deliveries and some rubbish collections to be carried out off-road.

"To link the parking development to the pub's future needs independently audited accounts for the Atlantic Inn," he added.

Mr White claimed the current car park was "badly organised and used by the local taxi company" and "not currently given the chance to be used as the pub parking," suggesting a redesign would make it a business asset.

Lisa Shelton raised concerns over road safety, writing: "The new build site is directly next to a junction where two narrow but very busy roads converge.

"Many pedestrians use the road and there is no pavement whatsoever along the entire road in front of the Atlantic Inn.

"Cars park the entire length of the road, so one is dodging between cars, whenever a vehicle passes up or down the road. I actually had a car reverse into me, as I waited for a car to pass by."