IT IS THE final hurdle in a 14-year-long battle to create a “world class” cultural centre in Southampton.

Tomorrow city councillors will have the final say on whether a £40m development including the longawaited arts complex will be built in the heart of the city.

If they approve the plans, final permission is likely to be granted by council officers next month and work could begin on the site this autumn.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, various plans to turn the former Tyrrell and Green site in Northern Above Bar into an arts complex have been on the table since 1999.

City Loft’s first scheme, which included a design featuring two towers, bit the dust in the recession.

But now the city council’s planning panel will decide on developer Grosvenor’s plans, which contain a £21m arts complex housing an art gallery, two theatres, a dance studio, a media and film facility and educational spaces.

Local groups such as the John Hansard Gallery and City Eye are already signed up to become part of the complex, and the site will also contain restaurants, cafes, bars and 38 flats.

Daily Echo: How the Art Complex in Southampton's Cultural Quarter will look

It is hoped it will provide 300 jobs.

Planning permission was granted for the development last October, but fresh plans were submitted to increase the number of flats at the site.

As revealed in the Daily Echo, the scheme had been held up by funding wrangling and taxpayers will be paying £1m more than was first expected to fund the development.

That sparked fresh calls to sell off some of the city’s 3,700-piece art collection to fund the development, in line with the Daily Echo’s Show Us The Monet campaign.

In total, the city council will pay £6.7m while the Arts Council has provided a £5.7m grant and a separate £1.5m towards the art gallery.

Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company, will provide the rest.

Daily Echo: How the Art Complex in Southampton's Cultural Quarter will look

City council leader Simon Letts said: “There have been plans in various guises for the site for the past 14 years.

“It first came up when Labour was in office in 1999.

“The development is absolutely essential to our cultural offering in the city and will help to bring in more investment.

“We have to be a happening and positive cultural place to bring in those opportunities.

“If this comes off it will be brilliant, as it will really enhance what we can offer as a city to the wider world and our own citizens.”