Anglian Water is "very close" to signing over ownership of the Rutland sea dragon to the county as part of a bid to bring the prehistoric fossil home.

Rutland County Council will spend £6million on the ambitious project and bosses are confident of taking ownership of the historic find in the coming weeks.

The ichthyosaur fossil was found in Rutland Water in 2021 – creating headlines around the world.

Speaking about the project at a scrutiny committee meeting last week, council leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem) said: "We haven't started digitisation of the sea monster yet.

"We can't do this until it is part of the museum. It's currently owned by Anglian Water.

"Until they sign the agreement, we can't start the work. It's due to be signed any day now."

Funding has been set aside in the council's budget for 2026/27 – which councillors are set to debate and vote on this week (February 26).

The plan is to digitise the sea dragon initially – as it could be years before the fossil is physically in place at the museum.

The 10-metre fossil was discovered at Rutland Water in August 2021 during routine maintenance work and has excited palaeontologists around the world.

Bosses found out in September last year that a £4.9m bid for National Lottery funding had failed.

But the plan to bring the fossil to Rutland County Museum remains in place – and a future bid for lottery funds has not been ruled out.

The proposal involves adding to the existing building in Catmos Street with a large extension.

Alongside the nationally important fossil, a digital exhibition of a Roman mosaic found at Ketton will also be shown.

The council received £2m in levelling up funding from the government to create a mobile, digital visitor experience to view the two heritage treasures – the Ichthyosaur and the remains of a fourth century Roman villa.

Ichthyosaurs were ancient marine reptiles and they lived in the sea 180 million years ago. The Rutland fossil is the biggest and most complete skeleton of its kind found to date in the UK.

Tourism is worth an estimated £175m annually to Rutland – with 1.5m people visiting the county every year.

Council bosses hope that the sea dragon project will help to boost these numbers in the coming decade.