BLOCKBUSTING proposals that could provide a multiplex cinema for Eastleigh's film-starved fans have made a major leap forward.

Armed with pop corn, the town's new generation of cinema-goers could be taking their seats in the nine-screen cinema by the late autumn of next year.

The Daily Echo can reveal that Cordwell Property Group, development partner to Prudential and Eastleigh Council, has announced that it is set to clinch the signature of a leading multiplex cinema operator.

The plan to open a nine screen cinema within the proposed extension of The Swan shopping centre will trigger off a leisure bonanza for the town.

It will also signal the end of film famine for Eastleigh cinema buffs, which began back in the early 80s when the final curtain came down on the town's only remaining cinema.

The leisure package will also include a ten-pin bowling alley, health and fitness facilities, cafes and bars, and talks are also under way to build an 84-bed hotel.

But it is the multiplex cinema which will have the starring role in what will be the first phase of major redevelopment for the town centre.

Civic chiefs are not revealing the name of the multiplex operator but council leader Keith House has hinted that some of Britain's biggest names in leisure business will be launching their presence in Eastleigh for the first time.

The council is hoping that this will also attract the kings of the retail world to set up their stall in Eastleigh and draw much-needed investment into the town.

A detailed application from the multiplex operator is expected to land on the planners' desk soon.

If the developers get the green light they expect that construction will start in the summer of 2005 and it would open for business in late autumn 2006.

Cllr House said: "We have been working with Cordwell Property Group and the Swan Centre owners, the Prudential for the past two years. I am confident that the hard work by the team will now confirm the borough council's ambition of many years to bring a major cinema operator and leisure package to the centre of our town."

Former Eastleigh mayor, Councillor Godfrey Olson, said: "Eastleigh has been waiting many years for a cinema and let us hope it is really going to happen."