A NEW watchdog organisation to oversee Southampton's heritage has been formed to safeguard the city's past for future generations.

Members of the Southampton Heritage Federation say they intend to keep a close eye on local historical riches and fight to develop a major new visitor centre that will tell the story of the city down the decades.

Formed by representatives from many heritage and conservation groups in and around Southampton, the federation aims to work closely with the Civic Centre to ensure that the area's unique and valuable legacies, including aircraft, ships, locomotives and trams, from former times are not lost forever.

Heritage is a controversial subject in Southampton where the local authority has, in the past, been accused of lagging behind other cities and towns in the UK and nearby continental Europe in establishing modern facilities to attract people keen to see and learn more about the past.

Squadron Leader Alan Jones, director of the Hall of Aviation museum in Southampton and the federation's chairman, said: "We intend to watch and observe what is happening to our city.

"It is the first time that an organisation such as this has existed in Southampton and we are concerned that our heritage is failing and falling apart at the seams but the foundation is determined to do something positive about it.

"The federation is anxious to play a major role in any future heritage centre in the city where our members' ambitions will be realised.''

Among those represented on the federation are volunteer groups that look after the tug tender Calshot berthed in the Eastern Docks, the unique steam ship Shieldhall, the Eastleigh Railway Society and the Hall of Aviation with its aircraft collection, including the Spitfire.

"At present we have a membership which is about 30-strong but we hope to expand it to bring in more people and organisations,'' said Squadron Leader Jones.

Discussions and meetings have been under way for some time in the city to give heritage a higher profile in the city and to try to identify a site for a new visitor attraction that will bring all the strands of the city's past under one roof.

It is the ambition of the federation to see a centre established, which at present has the working title The Story of Southampton, ideally on a waterfront site, that would be the permanent home for these groups and highlight the contribution the city and its people have made to the life of Great Britain over the years.

See Heritage in tomorrow's Echo.