A £500,000 project to overhaul the paddling pool and play area at Southampton Common has been given the green light to go ahead tonight.

The city council's cabinet has today agreed to start work on a project to develop "state of the art" new facilities at the site.

A council report said the facilities have "declined" recently and the facilities will all be brought onto one site, where the current paddling pool is.

While designs are still at an early stage, the new facilities may be fenced off and will feature climbing frames and new swings as well as a new "water play" area.

Designs currently include plans for grassy mounds, tunnels, boulders, beaches, water play area, playful planting, timber decking, a tree house and bridges in the new nature play space.

Southampton City Council has appointed RHS Gold Medal and BBC People’s Choice Award winning landscape architects, Davies White, to design the facility.

Over the coming months Davies White will engage with city schools and user groups, through model making sessions and hands on design workshops, which will result in a scale model of the scheme and a website showcasing the plans.

The proposals will also safeguard the facility for future generations by making it more sustainable, as maintenance requirements will be reduced and lifeguards would no longer need to be on duty.

This would also mean the new area would be able to open for extended periods of good weather throughout the year and just not restricted to the summer months as at present.

Councillor Jacqui Rayment, said: "We have worked with partners to improve the play areas across Southampton at St James' Park in Shirley and Houndwell Park, so we felt that the Common, which is used by people from across the Southampton and further afield, is the ideal location to continue this project.

"This overhaul of facilities will provide a state of the art play space that can be enjoyed for years to come”.

Director of Davies White Ltd, Adam White, added: "We design each of our play spaces to create a sense of place, unique to anywhere else and we make sure they offer reasonable risk allowing children to explore their own imagination and reconnect with nature and wildlife.

"Forget metal equipment and multi-coloured rubber surfaces, the Davies White approach rejects preconceived notions of a playground in favour of a more natural approach to play”.

Davies White plan to begin consultation on their proposals from Spring 2016, with construction work planned to start at the beginning of 2017.