DETAILS of a revolution in Eastleigh town centre's leisure facilities that would see a multiplex cinema developed alongside the showpiece Swan shopping centre could be unveiled by the end of the year.

The Daily Echo can exclusively reveal that civic chiefs are currently in talks with three developers keen on providing a leisure package for the prime 1.85-acre site.

Council leader Keith House says the authority hopes to have firm proposals which can be put into the public arena before Christmas.

More than three years ago planning permission was granted for an 11-screen, 2,200-seat state-of-the-art multiplex which included building over the existing car park alongside Tesco at first-floor level.

But the Wells Place scheme remained a paper dream until May this year, when civic chiefs took the bold step of going out to the market in a bid to resurrect ambitions of providing a

landmark leisure development.

Working in partnership with Prudential - the leaseholders of the Swan Centre - the council received "expressions of interest" from 13

companies following promotion of the new leisure opportunities.

Short-listed companies were invited to develop their proposals in more detail and Cllr House said that the presentation the council received was of "exceptional" quality".

He told the Daily Echo: "We have now met what we consider to be the leading three development schemes on two occasions and we are working through the detail.

"That, of necessity, takes some time because the package is inevitably pretty complex and we want to make sure we get it right."

But he added: "We would very much hope that certainly before Christmas we will have a firm proposal and something that we can outline and discuss with the wider community - and that would be a great Christmas present for Eastleigh."

He said the authority was looking at projects which included other leisure facilities besides a multiplex, but could not disclose more details because of commercial confidentiality.