FUNDING hopes for a new Gloucester bus station have been dashed.
A Government handout for transport improvement schemes will not see a penny go toward revamping the station.
Instead £9.8million will be spent on four other schemes in Gloucestershire including improving the A40 Over roundabout.
The A40 bus lane at Benhall and the bus corridor to the west of Cheltenham, along with the town's railway station, will also benefit from the windfall.
The lucky four were chosen by the Gloucestershire Local Transport Board at a meeting yesterday.
Ten other schemes – including the bus station – will now have to bid for another pot of money in 2014.
The bus station revamp had been planned as part of the King's Quarter redevelopment, which will include a swathe of new shops, alongside a picturesque square and a new public transport interchange.
Stanhope, the developers behind the long-awaited scheme, were unavailable to comment on how it would affect their plans yesterday.
Barry Leach, chairman of the Gloucester City Centre Community Partnership, previously said that the additional money for the bus station would have been 'a huge advantage' in helping to get the scheme going.
But the county's transport board is still buoyant about the projects that it will now be able to deliver thanks to the funding it has received.
Councillor Vernon Smith, chairman of the Gloucestershire Local Transport Board, said: "The schemes put forward would make a real difference to Gloucestershire, reducing journey times and improving local transport, helping to support and protect local jobs."
But other schemes losing out include improvement plans for the Abbeymead and Metz Way corridor and a transport strategy for Lydney.
Improvements at Stonehouse Railway Station and the Cinderford Northern Quarter link road also failed to make the final cut.
