A controversial plan for Ayr's historic town centre has been shut down after a "groundswell" of local objections to the design.

South Ayrshire Council had put forward a proposal for a four-storey office block on the town's High Street as part of its £30 million Riverside development.

However a planning committee agreed to a motion that was put forward to reject the plans.

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Community councillors and architects said they were delighted with the decision on the "ill-judged" and "disastrous" design.

More than 350 objections were lodged against the proposal, including those from both Fort, Seafield and Wallacetown and Alloway and Doonfoot Community Councils.

Previously, reader Jon Dunlop wrote in to the Herald, saying that the "large riverside gap site on the High Street which is without doubt the key opportunity to revitalise Ayr town centre.

However he said that design was "more befitting a Dubai or Hong Kong harbour than the space between Ayr's Twa Brigs."

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Architect Pat Lorimer, who had issues with the design, said that it was "reassuring to see that the planning system can actually work in both principal and practice".

"It is really good to see the people of Ayr taking the council on and deciding their own vision of their future rather than having a mundane and second rate building foisted on them," he said.

Fort, Seafield and Wallacetown Community Council chairman Norman McLean, said the design was "paid no heed to the brilliant Masterplan" which had been created by top architects Niall McLaughlin and Charles Jencks.

The masterplan for the £30 million Riverside development was approved in February last year to regenerate land between the medieval "Auld Brig" and the Victorian "New Bridge".

Ayr Renaissance commissioned the architects to design the original masterplan but were not involved in the latest proposal, which were designed by architects Keppie instead.

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Mr McLean said: "It was just a disastrous idea in the first place.

"There was a huge groundswell of opinion against it going ahead.

"We tried to muster our forces and indeed we did.

"Now the council will need to think about what to do now.

"I'm very happy on behalf of the community council to discuss it with the Chief Executive and see if we can help them find a solution to what they had proposed."

A South Ayrshire Council spokesman said the council was now considering its options going forward.