The chairman of a splash park project in a Huntingdonshire town has said he is "buoyant" with receiving a £650,000 grant for the plan.

Mick Marks, chair of the St Neots Aquatic and Leisure CIO, and the committee have worked for eight years to bring the St Neots Splash Park project to life.

On June 25, St Neots Town Council voted 13 to 2 to to award the CIO a £650,000 grant for the splash park, a decision which Mr Marks has described as "comforting".

He told The Hunts Post: "It is comforting that we now have the money formally set aside for the project. 

"The CIO will use the time between now and December 2024 to put the required legal contracts in place for the build, and work with the council to agree the grant paperwork."

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Mick has also said that the CIO will continue to work with the Charity Commission to "resolve the problems" that were identified in the 1974 trust deed, which has been the root of several legal problems for the committee over the past eight years.

The chairman said: "Once these things are in place, the Council can then formally release the funds and we can start building the Splash Park to open early 2025.

"We hope this will prove to be the best Christmas present for St Neots. Everyone involved in this should be rightly proud of their efforts."

Cllr Stephen Ferguson, who attended the meeting and is a former town councillor, said: "It’s not done yet but it’s a step forward. An excellent and impassioned speech by Kurt Schunmann at the start of the meeting certainly helped, and some brilliant work from Cllr Catherine Goodman who rescued the project from what looked like a certain deferral with a clever motion.

"Well done to everyone!"