The chairman of the trust behind plans for a new £5m landmark on the Scottish border, which has been denied crucial funding from the national arts funding body, has vowed to continue with the project despite being denied crucial funding.

Alasdair Houston, the chair of the Gretna Landmark Trust, said that the Star of Caledonia project can still be successful despite the national arts funding body, Creative Scotland, refusing it £1 million in capital funding.. in funding.

His plan for a huge abstract sculpture, designed by Cecil Balmond and Charles Jencks and inspired by Scottish scientific endeavour, had received development cash from the arts agency but has been denied the crucial cash.

Mr Houston said: "I remain determined to try to deliver this remarkable thing for Scotland and our region.

"The Star will be the single biggest thing that our region has seen for decades, signifying energy, innovation, confidence and ambition.

"Our region and Scotland now needs the public sector to demonstrate similar ambition to help turn it into reality.

"The hard work has been done...we just need the relatively small amount of money for a project of such international significance and then the benefits will flow."

The plans for the sculpture suggested, based on attracting visitors of 70,000 a year, that it could generate more than £300,000 for the region.

Studies of the project have also said that could generate as much media interest as the Angel of the North in England and The Kelpies in Falkirk in its first six months.

Creative Scotland's capital funding system works in two stages: the project was given £49,000 at a "stage one" level in September of 2012, but its "stage two" application for further money was unsuccessful, Creative Scotland has confirmed.

However it denied that its £1m funding had been "withdrawn" and that it was only agreed upon in principle.

A spokeswoman said: "The Stage Two Capital application from The Gretna Landmark Trust for the Star of Caledonia was unsuccessful."

The body does not reveal the reasons why projects are unsuccessful.

She added: "Stage 1 development funding is awarded to enable projects to develop proposals alongside an in-principle amount subject to a successful Stage Two application. "Project plans are then assessed by Creative Scotland at Stage Two and if the project is assessed as viable, the in-principle commitment outlined at Stage One will be awarded."

UK tourism minister, Helen Grant, backed the plans for the 120ft sculpture earlier this year.

Mr Houston has said that the Star "is a timeless work, which for 365 days a year will be a bold and confident statement of Scotland's innovation and energy."

It was given planning approval last year by Dumfries and Galloway but now it is unclear what the future of the project holds.

Mr Jencks, who has created artistic landforms, such as those at the Jupiter Artland site outside Edinburgh and at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, said that the work will "pull together the adjacent site, the distant hills and the Solway".

The planners of the project, Its planners, The Gretna Landmark Trust, have said that of the 60% of visitors to Scotland who enter the country by road, 84% pass by Gretna.

If it is built, more than five million vehicles will pass the site from the motorway annually and Star of Caledonia will be seen by over 10 million people each year.

Dumfries and Galloway Council's planning committee supported the plan and there were no public objections as a report pointed to benefits for tourism, local businesses and regeneration of the area, although the council has not given any funding to the project.