Council leaders have refused to rule out extending an agreement with a developer to allow the Seaway car park to be turned into a £50million leisure complex... despite past promises that they would have just “one last chance”.

In a major setback for developer Turnstone Estates, councillors voted to defer granting planning permission for the Seaway Leisure proposal until the company could find a way to provide extra parking spaces at the site.

While the decision was only to defer the plans, which will include an 11-screen IMAX cinema, a bowling alley and a hotel, it could lead to the plans being scrapped entirely because the council voted last year to give Turnstone until Friday to get planning permission.

That agreement, which was extended after Turnstone failed to meet a previous deadline, was branded the developer’s “last chance”.

But a day after the deferral decision the council’s deputy leader Councillor Ron Woodley has refused to rule out extending the agreement for a second time.

When pressed on whether this is the end of the road for the plans, Mr Woodley said: “I will read through the committee’s decision and the concerns of councillors and the cabinet will discuss what our position and view is later today.

“It will be collective view and we need to consider what Turnstone may do, they may appeal the lack of determination and I don’t blame them. We as an administration have done everything with the previous administration to address people’s concerns about parking.

“We put pressure on Turnstone to increase the number of parking spaces from their original proposal of 468 to 555.”

However, the decision could divide cabinet members as Independent Councillor Martin Terry, also a cabinet member, admitted the council had made a commitment to residents that this was to be Turnstone’s last chance.

He said: “Turnstone have had more than ample time to resolve the issues around this but we’ve run out of time. When we extended this last time, Council leader Councillor Ian Gilbert said this was last chance saloon.

“This is not the fault of councillors or committee members but Turnstone for leaving it until the last minute.

"They left it all too late sadly so it has left us in a difficult situation where we made a commitment that this was the last chance.”

But when pressed on how he would decide if asked whether to extend, Mr Terry also refused to rule out an extension.

Should the councillors approve an extension they are likely to come up against strong opposition from seafront traders who have long criticised the plans.

One of the scheme’s leading critics was former chair of the Seafront Traders Association Paul Thompson who declared the scheme “dead” following Wednesday’s decision.

He said: “The deadline for this scheme is in two days’ time. The leader of the council has fully gone on record and said he would not under any circumstances extend this deadline.

“Therefore, the Seaway development in its present guise is well and truly dead.”

Adventure Island boss, Philip Miller MBE, has labelled the deferral decision the end of a “David and Goliath” battle.

Writing on social media, Mr Miller said: “Amazing result at the planning today after six long years of fighting the council, out of the blue the majority agreed with us over a severe lack of car parking having created a set of rules and following when they benefit you and ignoring them when they don’t.”

He added: “Time to heal the wounds and get the town on its feet.”

The cabinet's decision is expected to be announced at a meeting in February.