David Bellamy will spearhead the campaign to bring £50 million to the West Midlands.

Online voting starts at 9am on Monday for the project which will see the region’s limestone caves opened up and other areas turned into an urban park.

The Black Country’s three-pronged bid includes plans to reopen Dudley’s Seven Sisters mines and canals, create a “green corridor” between West Bromwich and Walsall and breathe new life into Wolverhampton’s canal network.

It will battle on ITV against plans for the Eden Project, in Cornwall, a bid for a new visitor centre in Sherwood Forest and a nationwide cycle network.

Angie Took, of the Black Country Consortium, said: “This is a scheme which will benefit more than 800,000 people and now is the chance to bring millions of pounds to the region.”