A bid for lottery funding for the new Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office has been set back several weeks following negotiations with the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Wiltshire County Council and Swindon Borough Council have applied for nearly £5 million funding for a new record office in Chippenham on the cattle market site.

Now the HLF has decided to put the bid in the over £5 million category, instead of the under £5 million, which will set back the application six weeks.

Opponents to the plan to site the record office in Chippenham have jumped on the latest delay blaming spiralling costs.

But Tom Craig, of the county council's heritage department, said the bid had not gone up. He said the lottery bid was for £4.95 million, with a bid for a £194,000 development grant.

Charles Evans, who opposes the Chippenham site, said: "Spiralling costs and problems with the HLF bid come on top of other recent major setbacks to the project."

He said the Local Government Ombudsman is investigating the way that the council took its decision to relocate the record office, and forecast that the ombudsman would ask it to consider an alternative site in Trowbridge.

An update on the lottery bid will be given to the council on May 22.