Organisers of Porthleven Food Festival have described the traffic management of the event as "ongoing" but said they have received a wealth of support after 40,000 people attended over the weekend.

This year, in a bid to improve on the 2017 situation when residents complained of being blocked by cars parking in front of their driveways, a new access permit scheme was introduced.

The central part of the village was closed to outside traffic on Saturday and Sunday, with only residents showing permits or proof of address being allowed entry.

Mr Short said that as a result the organising committee had received extremely positive feedback, saying: "We have had so many letters and emails of thanks and support for thinking about residents and businesses.

"We solved a lot of problems and we have inherited some new ones. It's an ongoing thing."

Despite their efforts, there were still some snags, with First Kernow having to cancel buses into the port later on Saturday and throughout Sunday due to "inconsiderately parked cars."

The bus company first wrote of problems at 2.30pm on Saturday, warning customers buses were being "seriously delayed."

It later went on say that it was unable to serve the village at all, as buses couldn't get through. Passengers wanting to reach Porthleven were told they would have to use the park and ride service from Coronation Park.

The company then cancelled its service on Sunday between 10am and 6pm, saying the situation was out of their control and blaming it on "inconsiderately parked cars, which caused severe disruption to the service."

Mr Short said organisers had already spoken with First Kernow and a solution had been found.

There have also been complaints on social media from some residents, with one writing: "Tolponds Road and Torleven Road at a standstill. Shame on the idiots who even park on the corner preventing the buses to get through."

Another wrote: "I know the parking permit was thought up with the best of intentions, but we are in Mill Close and loads of vans and cars were parked here Friday morning and it looks like they will be there for the duration so our resident permit still doesn’t help us to park anywhere close to the house."

However, there was plenty of support also, with many others echoing one person when they wrote: "Personally I love seeing so many people flock to our beautiful village. Last year in Thomas Street we couldn’t move for the amount of cars parked up by the houses but this year it was clear."

Mr Short told the Packet: "There is some negativity but it's been met with a wave of positivity.

"The overall feeling seems to be it's accepted in the village, but it will cause some people disruption."

There were also issues with people trying to use the organised car park at Methleigh Farm, where there were long delays reaching the field and people reporting a normally five minute journey taking almost an hour and a half.

Mr Short said next year they could look at directing traffic in via different roads, depending on whether they came from the Helston or Penzance direction.

He acknowledged that the event had a "big impact" on Porthleven, saying: "Porthleven is a town that's open for business during the event, so it's got a very different dynamic to other events, and we have to work with all the businesses and residents and the council."

As a result, he described the traffic management of the event as a "complex operation."

He went on to add: "We're learning every year about how to do it a bit better and we hope that that's been noticed."

David Turnbull, chair of Porthleven Food Festival committee, said: "In terms of queues I think it’s a real credit to Arc Live and JPS that the traffic plan managed to cope with a volume of cars and people that Porthleven has never seen before - the number of visitors was right at the top end of any predictions which could have been done prior to the event and not many organisations could have managed the sheer volume of visitor numbers in a place like Porthleven.

"Considering the scale of the festival and complexity of location some queuing was to be expected but, as with all previous festivals, the committee will continue to learn from experience and develop improved processes for future years."