Dudley Zoo has failed to attract a developer to take forward its transformation, the council’s deputy leader admitted today.

Councillor Les Jones also said the site dubbed the ‘jewel in the crown’ had the potential to achieve much more.

A £10m scheme to turn the zoo into a world-class tourist attraction was scuppered after developer St Modwen pulled out almost six months ago. But zoo board chairman, Councillor David Sparks, says he is confident someone will come forward and put a scheme on the table better than the original proposal.

Councillor Jones today said the council had not abandoned the zoo.

He said: “The council is still committed to enhancing the zoo and castle as a leisure attraction.

“A major development would be welcome but until we see an end to the current economic conditions I don’t think we will see that.

“At the moment there is no individual on the scale of St Modwen in the picture.

“The potential for the site could be much greater and that’s why we have our eye firmly on getting something off the ground.”

In April it was reported Advantage West Midlands was set to invest millions of pounds into resurrecting the project to turn the site into a mini version of Cornwall’s Eden project, part of a bigger £100m leisure scheme for Castle Hill.

Councillor Sparks said: “I’m totally confident that eventually there will be a major redevelopment that will be even better for the town centre than the original plan.

“It would be a great mistake if we didn’t get the timing right. The market at the moment is clearly very hostile to the sort of development originally envisaged.”

Zoo bosses have recently spent £750,000 on a new chimp enclosure and invested in a new enclosure for the lions.