A late decision from the Big Lottery to withdraw the Swindon Science Museum from an ITV competition has left them devastated.

They had been part of another five sites competing for £50m of funding, with the winner due to be named after a public phone vote in December.

The environmentally friendly museum would have been the largest in Europe and seen a complete overhaul of the 545-acre Second World War airfield site in Wroughton.

It launched its Inspired project so it could unearth many of its old treasures kept in its hangars.

Visitors could have spent days immersing themselves in 250,000 previously unseen exhibits, designing and building robots, hot air balloons, and even a solar-powered car, and enjoying interactive spectacular shows, acrobatics, and huge displays in cutting-edge indoor and outdoor arenas.

The funding had been vital to secure Inspired's future as a new type of interactive museum but this has been dented now their progression to the final stages ended yesterday. (TUES) Graham Nichols, the marketing and communications officer for the science museum said: "We are extremely disappointed to find that we have been eliminated from the final round of the Big Lottery Fund's People's Millions.

"Inspired is a critical project for the nation's heritage and for attracting the next generation of scientists and engineers to combat the pressing issues of our time.

"We are devastated especially for the people of Swindon, with whom we have had the closest and most positive of working relationships.

"We will be exploring ways with our partners to make these world class collections available to the public in spite of this setback."

Two contenders were knocked out in the penultimate phase of the competition as the Somerset Waterlinks project fell with Inspired.

The final four shortlisted contenders to get through are the Black Country Urban Park, the Eden Project's The Edge, Sherwood, The Living Legend and Sustrans Connect2 project to create UK-wide walking and cycling routes.

Sir Clive Booth, head of the Big Lottery Fund which distributes National Lottery grants, said: "The People's £50 Million Lottery contest is a truly ground-breaking initiative.

"It gives everyone in the UK the opportunity to decide which of these highly deserving projects will receive the single biggest donation of Big Lottery funding through public vote."

A group of 33 initial applicants were narrowed down to a shortlist of six by a Big Lottery Fund committee last summer.

Those six projects were each awarded £500,000 to develop their bids ready for the Big Lottery Fund to decide the final contenders.

Members of the public will now decide which of the four finalists announced today will win the one-off £50m grant.