THE Cotswold Water Park Trust has been dealt another body blow after being turned down for lottery funding.

The charity, formed to take over the running of the Water Park from the crisis-ridden Cotwold Water Park Society, applied for a £2million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund which would have paid for a variety of projects across the site.

News that the application had been unsuccessful was announced shortly after the former CWPS chief executive Dennis Grant was jailed for more than four months after admitting six counts of fraud totalling mroe than £660,000.

Disappointed CWPT managing director Matthew Millett said the money could have transformed the area.

"It is obviously a great shame because we have so many good things planned," said Mr Millett.

"A lot of hard work went into the bid but we can still take the positives. Local communities and parish councils really got behind us and worked together which was great to see.

"There was a lot of competition for the money and unfortunately we missed out."

CWPT received £10,000 from Natural England and a further £10,000 from the Cotswold Water Park Joint Committee to put the bid together Mr Millett will meet with HLF representatives in the coming weeks to get feedback on the bid.

"The money has not been wasted," he added. "Resubmission is not off the cards, we are still keen to do a lot of good work in the Water Park, especially with improving access.

"We will move forward and use our hard work and experience in this bid to really push on."