BOSSES at the Cotswold Water Park Society have pledged to clean up their act after admitting mistakes in running the tourist attraction.

They stood in the firing line at a stormy public meeting to field accusations of financial mismanagement at the site, near Cirencester.

The packed meeting, attended by nearly 200 people, heard accusations of a lack of communication among the leadership of the 40sq mile wildlife amenity.

The environmental charity's chief executive Dennis Grant held his hands up to errors, but said the body's finances had turned a corner and he would be working more closely with residents.

Criticism was led by Liberal Democrat district councillor Esmond Jenkins, backed by 16 parish and town councils, at the forum in Somerford Keynes village hall.

The group challenged the society over a reported £1 million of losses over two years, serious accounting errors involving £200,000 and siphoning off funds to subsidiary companies.

Mr Jenkins said: "The reason we felt this meeting was needed was because questions never got answered and there was no real transparency.

"I've spent a lot of time looking at the society's finances and I'm not in the business of malicious accusations or spreading rumours – we have facts and figures.

"We see a failure to control costs, overdue accounts, accounts that didn't add up or were hidden from us.

"This is about integrity and a lack of confidence in an administration."

The event, which was chaired by Cotswolds MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, also featured residents living near the park quizzing bosses.

Some questioned the society's disposal of key assets, the Gateway Visitor Centre and, in particular, Keynes Country Park, sub-let to developers Watermark Ltd in January 2008.

Locals said developers had barred them from long-used footpaths and they were also being kept in the dark about future developments, including a controversial car park, and mineral extractions.

Somerford Keynes resident Karen Mogridge said: "We don't want confrontation – what we want is good communication."

CWPS financial director Nick Hanson admitted a £200,000 discrepancy was a "transposition error" in the accounts.

He said: "They were wrong twice, but it did not affect the accounts' bottom line."

And he pledged to provide independently audited statements.

Mr Grant defended sub-letting run-down KCP, as its costs were "bleeding him dry" and he could not get grants to find at least £500,000 needed to refurbish it.

He said: "I'm not denying we've done things wrong and had to make hard decisions – but now we're out of the last five years' survival mode. You are going to get more transparency, although we only need to show that for the £135,000 of public money we spend, which is 11 per cent of our annual £1 million income."

Despite the defence, a final invitation to talk to the society from chairman Brian Atfield, who said to residents "you know where we live" was met with resounding jeers from the audience.