More than 100 local residents have formed an action group to prevent a consortium of developers led by the Duchy of Cornwall, the prince’s estate, from building the mosque on the southeast fringes of Newquay.

They point out that there are virtually no Muslims in the area, with official government figures showing that only 33 people out of more than 22,000 are Muslims.

The multi-million-pound development — variously dubbed “Kensington-on-sea” and “Surfbury” because of its location — would create a series of “urban villages and hamlets” consisting of some 1,200 new homes.

A range of community services including a “holistic” health centre and masonic lodge are also planned as part of the project, which should be complete by 2016.

Personally overseen by the prince and George Hautot, a local holiday park owner, the scheme is designed to help regenerate the area and has been broadly welcomed by the local council.

But residents are upset about the mosque and have joined forces in a bid to stop it being built.

In a letter published in a local newspaper last week, the 118- strong Newquay Mosque Opposition Group called for a “cinema complex/ice skating rink/supermarket/bowling alley or something for the whole community . . . that will not be out of character with the area” to be built instead.

“All these facilities would generate revenue, giving us something that would generate jobs for the Cornish people,” the letter added.

Objections to the proposed mosque first emerged when residents met the Prince’s Foundation and developers at a public hearing last October.

According to an internal report obtained by The Sunday Times, Ron Pooley, a local resident, said he “disagreed with (the) mosque, which would be out of place and unpopular with existing residents”.

Pooley’s objection is thought to have led to the formation of the opposition group, which is now seeking 2,000 signatures on a local petition calling for the plan to be dropped.

Steven Briggs, a local resident, said he was aware of strong public feeling against the mosque. “I could think of a hundred other things local people would prefer,” he said. “A mosque is the last thing they would want.”

Another resident, Viscountess Long, wife of the 4th Viscount Long of Wraxall, said she understood the mosque was a sensitive issue. “I don’t know who thought this up,” she said.

Others pointed to the 2001 census figures compiled by the Office for National Statistics, which show that in the four council wards covering the area, only 0.15% of the local population follow Islam.

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim parliament, said Prince Charles should respect the wishes of the religious majority in Newquay. “If there are hardly any Muslims there, what is the need for a mosque? There should be a Church of England church there instead,” he said.

“You have to take into account the fact that the vast majority of people there are of the Anglican faith. If that is ignored there will never be fairness or tolerance in society.”

The Prince’s Foundation says the idea for the mosque was generated by “local interest” and is currently standing by its plans. However, it added that the mosque was just one of a large number of proposals and that the public consultation process was continuing.

The prince himself has made no secret of his support for Islam. He has an Islamic garden at his home at Highgrove in Gloucestershire.

He once famously described himself as “defender of faith” — upsetting those who believe that the heir to the throne should identify himself solely with the Church of England.

Initial building work is set to begin by the end of the year. Using traditional materials such as Cornish granite and slate on a 250-acre site, the proposed settlement embodies Charles’s vision of Britain’s architectural future, complete with mock- Regency architecture and gentrified town squares.

The development is being built a decade after the prince’s Austrian planner, Leon Krier, created Poundbury, a village on Charles’s land in Dorset.

Poundbury proved a commercial and popular success but led to criticism from modernists, with Lord Rogers, one of Britain’s leading architects, dismissing it as “a questionable exercise in Hardyesque nostalgia”.

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