OUT of the many charities in the Cotswolds, few have faced more challenges than the Cotswold Water Park Trust.

Despite the organisation's work to improve the Water Park for residents, visitors and wildlife, the lingering spectre of the fraud by former chief Dennis Grant has loomed over the Cotswold Water Park Trust since its inception.

At the recent Annual General Meeting, members and trustees heard how the organisation had been working to ensure measures were in place to avoid any possibility that such a fraud could be repeated.

Among these is a new system of delegated authority, meaning any decisions have to be approved either by CWPT chairman Sir David John, the board of trustees, or both.

Managing director Matthew Millett said this meant decisions such as the controversial lease of Keynes Country Park (KCP) to property developers Watermark would be properly scrutinised before being approved or rejected.

"We have introduced a whole raft of measures," he said. "It's a fact that the organisation has never been as well governed as it is now."

He added a number of concerns raised around the governance of the trust had been passed to the Charity Commission, which had decided there was no basis for action to be taken against the organisation.

On the controversial KCP lease, Matthew said the organisation had taken legal advice over the issue, but were currently not in a position to revoke it.

"We are not continuing these leases because it's somehow beneficial to us - we would like to be out of them," he said.

Likewise, he added, agreements around quarrying at Shorncote had not been revoked as to do so could prove extremely costly to the charity.

Referring to accusations levelled at the AGM that the charity acted as a "de facto arm of the local authorities", Matthew said this had "no basis", arguing the organisation was set up by the surrounding local authorities specifically to be independent.

He added anyone was welcome to join the CWPT to take part in the scrutinisation of its activities.

"It's not a closed shop," he said. "The way we work is the standard for a charity."

And he said he hoped people would not allow the events of the past few years to taint their view of everything the trust does.

"The Water Park and the work of the trust is much larger than these things," he said.