Winchester Conservative Club has offered its site to a supermarket chain in a potential multi-million- pound deal.

The club has suggested swapping its land in Worthy Lane with Aldi, the owner of an empty pub in Weeke called Chimneys.

The 500-member club has proposed exchanging Highfield Lodge, its home since 1936, for the pub on Stockbridge Road, which shut last year.

Chimneys was bought by the Aldi discount supermarket chain, which is keen to open a store in Winchester.

The pub closure sparked a strong campaign by local people, supported by city MP Mark Oaten.

Last month the club wrote to Aldi, saying the Worthy Lane site was larger than Chimneys and offered potential for redevelopment.

Large parcels of land in Winchester are at a premium. Earlier this month, the Daily Echo revealed that parts of back gardens in Chilbolton Avenue were selling for £500,000.

Developers are proposing mini housing estates in leafy suburbia as current policies deter them from greenfield sites.

Conservative club officials said they were looking for somewhere more suitable for the club, which has seen its membership drop from around 1,300 in the 1980s to about 500 today.

Chairman Alan Carter said contacts had been made with Aldi but things were at a very tentative stage.

He said the club's location meant that developers had approached it in the past. "We have had at least five companies interested. Our problem is, we could sell this place tomorrow but it is where we would go that is the big problem.

"Ideally we would be looking for somewhere with a bigger car park, space for a bowling green. We are not desperate to go. But if the opportunity came along to find the right site with the right amount of land, we would give it serious consideration."

Richard Williams, property director of Aldi, said: "I'm waiting for further information. I'm always open to ideas but I don't yet know what is on the table. Until I get more information, I cannot go any further."

Campaigners fighting to save the Chimneys as a pub welcomed the club's interest. Geoff Bartrop, of Trussell Crescent, Weeke, said: "We want it back as a pub, not a supermarket. We would prefer a pub but a club would be better than an Aldi."