The £1m development - which will be energy-efficient - will have a solar powered roof and will recycle rainwater.

A conference on Friday - called "A New Park for a New Region" - is to look at the future of the water park.

However, the botanist David Bellamy has voiced his objections to plans for leisure housing developments.

How do you make butterflies and dragonflies pay?

Professor David Bellamy

He said the balance between leisure and wildlife conservation is important and he is not in favour of vast numbers of holiday villages.

"It will be very interesting to see how the Cotswold Water Park develops in the future and I am very proud of being part of the committee that is trying to make these decisions," he said.

"Many, many things come along and they are there for a few months and they disappear and that is a problem because how do you make butterflies and dragonflies pay?

"And lots of people want to build houses all over it, like a bijou housing estate beside one of those beautiful lakes.

"We will be discussing such things but I know most of the local people want the Cotswold Water Park as the Cotswold Water Park."

Simon Pickering, conservation and biodiversity officer, said there were tremendous economic benefits for the area from green tourism.

He said: "The Water Park is already of national importance for wildlife and regional importance for recreation.

"It has the potential to become an area of regional importance for both, creating a blueprint for regional parks in the United Kingdom and Europe."