SOUTHAMPTON is winning the shopping basket battle with its big city rivals Portsmouth.

Portsmouth fears that it could lose shoppers to Southampton because of delays over its city centre redevelopment plans.

This week developer Hammerson put in plans for a £100m shopping centre next to West-Quay. Southampton.

Centros, which is behind Portsmouth’s £500 million Northern Quarter scheme, has gone back to the drawing board to redesign plans because of the credit crunch.

It was hoped that the new shopping centre would have attracted thousands of shoppers from across the region.

Developer Centros says it is still committed to the scheme but councillors fear that prolonged delays could send shoppers along the M27 to Southampton.