A MULTI-million-pound scheme to build a gymnasium next to Southampton's planned healthy living centre in St Mary's has been dealt a hammer blow.

Leisure chiefs have revealed that a £2m lottery grant earmarked to build state-of-the-art gym facilities next to the planned centre has been lost because the centre itself will not be finished by 2005.

City MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead have joined forces with city leisure bosses to try and persuade Sport England to relax the rules.

They are also writing to government ministers to try and put pressure on lottery chiefs so that future council cash bids for lottery money do not have to conform to such a strict timetable.

Mr Denham said: "Basically, the issue is that the council not only had to get the money but they had to be able to promise to spend it within a certain time scale.

"The national lottery has become much stricter. I have been trying to get some flexibility in the rules."

City council Cabinet member for tourism and leisure Councillor Peter Wakeford said that the deadline imposed by Sport England to finish the centre so that the gymnasium could qualify for lottery funding had been "impossible" to achieve.

He said: "We just can't deliver it within the time scale. The healthy living centre can go ahead without the gymnastics element. We are not going to stop because of this. I am as confident as I can be. The will is there."

The council hopes that the £6m healthy living centre will eventually replace St Mary's Leisure Centre in the city.

It is planned to be completed by late 2006. The new complex, funded by the city council, regeneration cash, and the city's primary care trust will feature a GP surgery, physiotherapy and sports facilities.

Earlier this year, hundreds of campaigners battled to save St Mary's Leisure Centre from closure after it was revealed that no firm plans to build the new £6m healthy living centre were in place.

A city council spokeswoman said: "Plans to build the healthy living centre at Charlotte Place are progressing.

"We are confident the project will go ahead and provide a huge benefit for St Mary's."