Secret document made public (From Swindon Advertiser)

Secret document made public

11:02am Friday 10th February 2012 in Local

A CONTROVERSIAL secret agreement between disgraced former Cotswold Water Park Society chief Dennis Grant and property developers Watermark has been revealed.

The documents, which were signed in December 2007 but kept away from the public until last week, detail a series of commercial agreements around the former Keynes Country Park, now known as Cotswold Country Park and Beach.

Among the agreements detailed in the documents, which have been legally signed by solicitors, are that CWPS would support any planning application made by Watermark, while opposing any applications made by other companies.

The documents also reveal that Watermark agreed to pay three seperate grants, totalling more than £300,000 to the society.

The developers paid the money but it never made it into CWPS’ accounts and is understood to have been part of the money stolen by Grant, who is the former chairman of the Swindon Chamber of Commerce and is now serving a four year prison sentence.

The documents show that the attraction was popular when the deal was struck, making an annual profit of around £100,000. It was signed over for a peppercorn rent of £1 with an additional fee of £70,000 a year for the duration of the lease deal. Watermark director Max Thomas said at a public meeting that his company had been a victim of Grant’s deceit.