A festive theme park designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has closed after a major investor pulled funding for the project following a wave of problems since opening.

The Magical Journey attraction, near Birmingham, was forced to shut a day after opening following customer complaints. It then re-opened several days later, but has now been forced to close permanently nine days before its scheduled closing date. Mr Llewelyn-Bowen said: “It's absolutely shocking. We found out by Twitter. Everybody was in bed feeling Christmassy and now we are not feeling very Christmassy at all.

"I was really impressed with the way they addressed all the issues the first time around and the energy and resources that went into it so I'm extremely surprised the towel's been thrown in at this stage.

"I feel extremely sorry for everybody let down in the next nine days and also for the staff who worked on the front-line. I'm hoping they will get their money back.

"On a personal level I was so excited by the idea of designing Christmas. It seemed a perfect opportunity.

"I feel very much I was the designer and I'm a very public face so people are cross with me."