Members of Argyll and Bute Council's Bute and Cowal area committee unanimously turned down the application by Offshore Farm Developments Ltd (OFD) at a special hearing at the Pavilion in Rothesay on Tuesday.

Around 30 members of the public attended the hearing, postponed from last month by bad weather, and heard Bute community councillor Rosemary Laxton summing up the mood of objectors by urging the committee to "listen to the community before making a decision".

The unanimous rejection of the application came as something of a surprise to both the applicant and the objectors after committee chairman Bruce Marshall said he believed the farm would be "an insignificant blot on the landscape" - comments which led one resident of the west coast hamlet of Straad, Jim Mitchell, to storm out of the meeting in disgust, complaining: "This is completely out of order - I cannot listen any longer."

After the hearing another Straad resident, Christine McArthur, who formed the Stop The Inchmarnock Fish Farm (STIFF) pressure group to oppose the plan, said: "We are delighted that the other councillors supported us and, on this occasion, were obviously listening to the community.

"The beauty and peace of the island will remain."

The views of OFD director Donald McPhee, not surprisingly, were very different. As the meeting dispersed, he told us: "This wasn't a planning decision, it was based on emotions.

"We are interested to see how SNP councillors voted against their party's policy.

"We will be looking at at the appeal process, but it is very difficult to counteract assertions and assumptions, so we will have to look at it technically rather than emotionally."

Comments by Cllr Marshall on the scenic beauty, or otherwise, of the St Ninian's Bay area caused a stir among objectors, after he complained that on a visit to St Ninian's Bay and the nearby St Ninian's Chapel last month, he had seen "cattle in a dirty state eating from a silage barrel which was next to a used barrel; nearby was a derelict caravan.

"The chapel is actually a pile of rubble and next to it is a sign lying face down in the mud," he added.

"The view from the Straad, Ettrick Bay and Tarmore would be limited and I believe would have no disbenefit to Bute - but the six jobs created would be of benefit."

But Cllr Marshall's opinions were not shared by his fellow councillors, with Dunoon councillor and Argyll and Bute council leader Dick Walsh stating: "It is clear our applicable policies were not arrived at through a whim but following consultation with communities and our policies advise a presumption against development on this part of Bute."

To loud applause from the audience Cllr Walsh recommended the application be refused - and the applause continued when Cowal councillor Ron Simon stated: "When is a pile of stones not a pile of stones? When it is St Ninian's."

The committee unanimously went along with the recommendations of the council's planning officers, and rejected the application on the grounds of its likely impact on tourism and visual amenity, and the risk of possible pollution.