A £2 million restoration project to turn Porthleven's institute clock tower into an events and heritage centre, wedding venue and holiday let are said to have been supported by the local community.

The team behind the plans for the Bickford-Smith Institute said they were "received well" at a public event last month, at which the designs were revealed.

They showed the main hall, currently used by the snooker club, being turned in a community hall with a programme of events and to be leased to community groups. It would be opened up as a wedding venue, for an estimated 20 days a year.

A raised mezzanine level would be added, to make more space and better use of the height of the room, which could become a gallery area to display works of local artists.

The upstairs meeting room would be kept for use by the town council for meetings and could also be booked by the community.

Caretaker's Cottage, where the town council currently meets, would be partially turned into a heritage centre with a digital archive and information about the history of Porthleven, with an office space for the town clerk.

The remainder of the cottage would become a one-bedroom studio holiday let, to produce income for ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the building - a requirement of any grant funding being that the town council, which owns the building, is able to set aside £25,000 a year for this work - and so that reduced hire rates can be offered to community groups.

The clock tower itself would be partially opened up to the public and have a glass ceiling added to the entranceway.

According to the working party leading the consultation, around 200 people visited the event and of the comments left by visitors 95 per cent were either positive or neutral.

Of the people that attended, 77 per cent who left their postcode lived in the TR13 area and of the 43 people leaving comments and recording their postcode, 33 (77 per cent) lived in the 'TR13 9' Porthleven postcode district.

Porthleven’s new mayor Bev Plunkett said: “When we talked people through the plans, as a whole we were very pleased at the level of support for breathing new life into the building.

"We would like to thank everyone who took the time to come and understand the plans. Reactions were really positive and there are also a few suggestions we will feed into our plans going forwards.

“There is still a long way to go with this project but we would not have taken it forward without the support of the community, so we are delighted to have had this conversation and received support – which will be crucial for any successful bid.

"The next step is to write up a final report for the National Heritage Lottery Fund to complete the current piece of work and then the real work will begin.”

Following the completion of the report to the Heritage Lottery, on the spending of the initial grant of £20,700, the team will then need to prepare a full bid to part-fund the restoration of the building and to start fundraising for the remainder.

Anyone interested in helping with fundraising can get in touch with the town council on porthleventc@tiscali.co.uk.