Falmouth Town Council has gone against the neighbourhood plan by supporting an application to convert another guest house into a residential home.

The application submitted by Shirley Cormack-Trezona (former director of now-dissolved Rebel Brewing Co.) was supported by Falmouth Town Council at a meeting of its planning committee on Monday.

It relates to Penwarren Guest House on Avenue Road, a ten-bedroom property that was sold for £525,000 in June.

The council supported the application saying it was outside the town's Prime Seafront Hotel Area - when according to a Carrick Council map from 2005 it sits just inside the protected area.

The application has raised questions about whether or not properties in Falmouth's Prime Seafront Hotel Area should continue to be protected in a rapidly changing market affected by the rise of Airbnb.

Read more: Airbnb argument over Falmouth guest house change

Currently, properties along the seafront are protected under policy 11C of the Carrick Local Plan implemented in 1998.

This was recently reiterated in police BE five of the Falmouth Neighbourhood Plan which states: "In the Prime Seafront Hotel Area of Falmouth as shown on the Proposals Maps, the conversion of hotels and guesthouses to uses other than holiday accommodation will not be approved where they have an adverse impact on the tourist character of the area."

Falmouth Town Council supported the application claiming that the property was outside the protected area and that it had not been used as a guest house for years.

Ms Cormack-Trezona said in her application that the building has not been used as a guest house since 2011 and that if given permission she would live in it with her family renting out a maximum of two bedrooms.

Read more: Falmouth hoteliers hope to retire

Town clerk Mark Williams told councillors about a meeting he attended along with councillor Geoffrey Evans in which Cornwall Council's planning team said that town council comments on a previous application (Wellington Guest House) had contravened the neighbourhood plan policy.

Mr Williams said: "Cornwall Council has the view that if that's the consistent view of the town council then we should look at [changing] the neighbourhood plan."