The four-storey block, which would have housed up to 350 of its own staff, was voted down unanimously this week by members of South Ayrshire’s regulatory panel.

The proposal formed a key part of the council’s £30 million Riverside masterplan to regenerate the bottom end of the town.

However, more than 350 objections were lodged against the “ill-judged” and “disastrous” designs, including those from both Fort, Seafield and Wallacetown, and Alloway and Doonfoot community councils.

Architect Pat Lorimer, who also 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” created by architects Niall Mclaughlin and Charles Jencks. That plan for the £30m Riverside development was approved in February last year to regenerate land between the medieval “Auld Brig” and the Victorian “New Bridge”.

Mr Mclean said of the council plans: “It was a disastrous idea. There was a huge groundswell of opinion against it. We tried to muster our forces and we did. The council will need to think about what to do now.”

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