A dream to upgrade a dilapidated Cornish harbour has taken a step closer to reality despite two influential campaigners abstaining from a crucial vote.

The Penzance Harbour Scheme Management Board (PHMSMB), which is steering the project to enhance facilities for the Isles of Scilly ferry link, has selected the elements of a vital blueprint it wants to progress.

The board has decided not to publish details until after a meeting with harbourside businesses early next week but the Western Morning News understands that the favoured plan will draw in strands from two proposals for the North Arm and South Pier, the current landing stage for the Scillonian ferry.

The vote – which was not unanimous – eliminates popular but more expensive schemes for Albert Pier, on the other side of the harbour.

Jon Pender, a Penzance town councillor and chairman of the PHSMB, said it had been a healthy and rigorous debate.

"It was a long meeting and at the end of it we felt that it had been very productive," he said.

"We reached the point we wanted to be at and we have a scheme we are going to recommend goes forward.

"We all felt very positive about it."

Two people abstained from the vote, John Maggs, a member of the Seafront Forum, and Hadrian Piggot, the consortium's chairman.

Mr Maggs, founder of Friends of Penzance Harbour, whose vociferous campaign helped see off the previous £62 million Cornwall Council- led scheme, had previously voiced reservations about the three shortlisted schemes.

In a statement to the WMN, he said the abstention was driven by concerns about the process which had been undertaken.

"The chairman of the Seafront Forum Hadrian Piggot and fellow Seafront Forum member John Maggs, both voting members of the Penzance Harbour Scheme Management Board, abstained in the vote because of concerns about the process leading to the preferred option, but believe that the approach chosen on Thursday could form the basis of a successful scheme for both the town and the Penzance-Isles of Scilly Link."

The finalised plan was put together following a long consultation process which culminated in an exhibition attended by more than 500 people.

As a result, 222 completed a questionnaire to express views on what shape the bid should take.

The chosen scheme will be presented to representatives of harbourside businesses early next, before going on to Penzance Town Council on Thursday night.

If it is given the green light, the scheme will be submitted to the Department of Transport who will then decide whether to allocate the £8 million worth of funding it has previously said might be available.