The £58m masterplan to breathe new life into St Austell’s town centre has sparked a huge reaction.

Thousands of people read the news when it was first revealed on our website.

And there has been a tidal wave of comment - very little of it positive - in reaction.

We’ll be featuring your reactions in a series of posts on this website over the weekend.

Claire Bounsall said: “Let’s hope this time the town gets a much-needed make-over and shops can actually thrive.”

And Amf Armstrong said: “A plethora of negativity, what a surprise.”

But Danny Merrifield summed up the general reaction, saying the town needed “lower rates, free parking and a lot of TLC” and continuing: “The council and planning are at fault for moving everything out of the town with one stop supermarkets etc with free parking. They have killed the town. Now with shopping online as well being cheaper it’s going to be a struggle.”

Sam Gibson said: “I was walking around town the other day and said to my husband it was getting extremely tatty!”

Sharon Cramm said: “So once again no decent retail, turning it into a residential area.”

And Angela Woodhouse said: “Will we be able to see the proposed plans before anything happens?”

Some have linked the plan to the Aylmer Square Earth Goddess statue, the UK’s tallest ceramic sculpture, which drew a huge wave of criticism when it was unveiled last year.

James Marshall said: “Just think how many totem poles we could buy with that amount of money.”

And Carole Davis said: “Waste of money tried to improve it before and failed. They think they know what St Austell wants they don’t ever ask the people, and as for that monstrosity in Aylmer Square – well.”

We’ll have more of your reactions this evening.

And we’ll be taking a look at the current state of St Austell town centre on Monday.