Directors of Truro City Football Club have refused to let go of their ambitions and vowed "we will carry on" after planners shattered their dreams for a multi-million pound development.

The club had hoped that building a £6 million complex at Pencoose Farm at Kenwyn, on the outskirts of the city, would push the club closer towards playing at a professional level. But in a shock decision, the referral committee at Carrick district council reversed a previous decision made by its own planning committee and refused permission for the development.

Chris Webb, director of football at the club currently based in Treyew Road, described the decision as a "setback" but declared: "It's certainly not the end of the football club."

Mr Webb said: "We're obviously very disappointed it was turned down, but we're still upbeat. We'll have to regroup again now. It's an opportunity missed, put it that way, but we will keep soldiering on."

An emergency management meeting was expected to be held at the beginning of this week, in which directors were due to meet with chairman Kevin Heaney to discuss a way forward for the club. However, Mr Webb stressed: "We can't make a decision like this overnight."

Mr Webb said that the facilities were desperately needed, giving an example of the club's two under-12s girls' football teams - one of which was able to train for an hour at Truro College, but the other team had to travel to Pool to practise.

The club had hoped to develop state-of-the-art facilities suitable for the 21st century, to include five pitches, a sports hall, indoor five-a-side pitches, a bar, restaurant, corporate facilities and a gym.

Mr Webb said the site at Pencoose had been ideal, as work could have begun within the next five to six months. Other areas had been considered, but the sites would not have become available for at least five to ten years.

However, at the meeting last Thursday - which was attended by about 100 people, both in support of and against the application - councillors decided to reverse the initial decision of the planning committee to grant outline permission, made back in June, as the plans went against policy and also the recommendations of officers.

"At the end of the day they have made a decision and we have to take it on the chin. Something like this will not stop us in our tracks. When Kevin came in three years ago our ambitions were to be a professional football club and that's what we will do," added Mr Webb.

The application has been steeped in controversy from the start, with some residents arguing that the plans were not suitable for such a residential area.

In a report to councillors at the meeting, Graham Webb, head of development services at Carrick council, said that a road safety assessment had concluded that the current pedestrian access on Kenwyn Hill could not be used safely, with the investigator expressing concern over pedestrians, and in particular children, not being able to safely attend the proposed football academy on foot.

In addition, he said the inclusion of a multiple use games area in that location was not considered to meet the recreational needs of the city in the best way and that two other sites - at Besore Farm and Langarth, both in Threemilesone - also had their own merits and that the only difference with the Pencoose site was that it could be delivered in the short term.

Mr Webb concluded: "The site is located in open countryside, where the development of a football facility requiring floodlighting will have a significant adverse effect upon the character of the area, the setting of the city and on the gap between Truro and Shortlansend.

"Access to the site from the city is poor and has no prospect of significant improvement. Emerging planning policies seek to locate such facilities along the transport corridor in the Threemilestone area and to locate a significant facility in the proposed location will undermine the implementation of that policy."