FIRST the good news: the long derelict Chapel Riverside site in Southampton is to be developed.

Better news: the work to create hundreds of homes will provide an estimated 700 jobs – to begin with, at least – as well as much-needed extra housing in the city.

The bad news? Southampton will not get a snow centre.

And while many readers will shrug and ask why that is a problem, the answer lies in business and prosperity.

A snow centre would be an attraction that would bring visitors to the city in droves and place Southampton on the map as a tourist draw on a par with Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower.

Indeed, the snow centre may have eclipsed the tower even, as a pure tourist magnet.

So while jobs at the dome would have been few, the greater effect of more city visitors would have been felt wider.

But the city needs homes and the news remains good that this site is being developed.

Another piece in the city’s jigsaw for renewal is to be put in place.