The five firms bidding to run a super-casino in Southamp-ton have been granted extra time to prepare their detailed bids.

Licensing chiefs at the city council yesterday voted to extend the deadline until April.

As previously reported, Grosvenor, Kymeira Casino Ltd, Genting Casinos UK Ltd, Global Gaming Ventures and Aspers handed in bids earlier this year.

While the super-casino – the last one with a licence in the UK – is likely to go in the proposed £450m Royal Pier development, two bids were for it go at the Watermark WestQuay site and another for the Leisureworld complex in West Quay Road.

Aspers and Grosvenor both asked the council to delay the process due to there being insufficient information available about Royal Pier.

The extension of the deadline for detailed bids until April means that a final decision on which company will run the casino – which was expected to be made in June – will now happen later in the year.