FROM the Spitfire soaring over a renovated Mayflower Park to the bars, restaurants and hotels ranged along the waterfront, this is what Southampton's Royal Pier could look like in eight years time.

The Daily Echo can today exclusively reveal the latest plans to transform the crumbling site into a thriving £400m development with a casino, five-star hotel, gourmet market and hundreds of homes.

The latest images for the complex have been released as the Royal Pier Waterfront (RPW) development company finalises its plans for the site, which are likely to be handed in later this year.

The firm had reached agreements with the site's three landowners - the city council, Associated British Ports and the Crown Estate.

Consultation on the vision for the site is set to begin tomorrow when the full plans go on display to the public.

They will include about 730 apartments, 47,000sq m of office space and between 40 and 50 shops, restaurants, cafes and bars running along the waterfront.

A gourmet "Epicurean market" offering top range produce would take its place next to a 250-bed, four or five-star hotel and spa and a large casino.

A new "hub" building could provide space for cultural, arts and technology uses while the site would also feature 2,000 car parking spaces, some of which will be built in basement car parks within land reclaimed from the River Test.

Proposals to improve Mayflower Park, which would see it become the home of a 98 ft high monument to the iconic Spitfire aircraft, would see it extended through the reclamation of land from the sea.

The park, which would become the new home for the PSP Southampton Boat Show, would be expanded by 8,000sq m to about 50,500sqm in size and feature a play area with an "interactive water feature", a games area, a timber boardwalk and a cafe.

As part of the project Red Funnel's current base on Town Quay would be relocated to Trafalgar Dock in one of the first steps of the plan to be completed.

Nick Condon, RPW's project director, said: “The Royal Pier Waterfront will unite and integrate the port area with the surrounding city to create a vital and lively, but elegant, urban development that brings people closer than ever before to the history and beauty of one of the world's most important ports.

“I encourage people to come along to the public exhibition to discover more about our exciting proposal for Southampton. Staff will be on hand to answer questions and listen to suggestions.”

It is expected that a planning application will be filed later this year, with the first land reclamation expected to take place next year.

Red Funnel could relocate in autumn 2017, while work on buildings at the site could start in 2018 and be completed by 2023.

City council leader Simon Letts, said: "The Royal Pier site is the crown jewel of Southampton's development future, it's a major scheme for the whole of the South Coast.

"It will bring in approaching half a billion pounds in private investment when it is completed and it will completely change the city's relationship with the waterfront.

"It's the last piece of the jigsaw that links the city centre back to the waterfront, with the two stages of WestQuay and hopefully will provide a completely revamped Mayflower Park with a Spitfire monument and an outstanding public realm, and of course that will bring thousands of new jobs and hundreds of new homes."

And Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith said: "It can't come soon enough.

"We've been trying to get this site developed properly for years and this is the iteration now.

"I'm really, really pleased this is coming forward. Southampton continues to punch above its weight but it can be so much better and this particular scheme is the one that will help to define it for the next generation."

The plans are on show at Kuti's Gate House in Town Quay from 2-6pm tomorrow and 11am to 3pm on Saturday.