First look at bid to light up town walls

The multi-coloured light show - which will be switched on next month - will illuminate 600-year-old arches along Western Esplanade and opposite the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel.

Lights will flash pink, orange, purple, red, yellow, white, blue and turquoise, according to the latest artist's impressions.

The walls will glow every evening from March to May and if the scheme proves popular other historical sites within the Old Town could also be lit up.

It is the latest bid to give Southampton the elusive wow factor.

But people visiting the city walls at the weekend were not impressed by the plans when the Daily Echo took them out on to the streets.

Several described it as a waste of money and ridiculous while others suggested the cash should be spent on more worthwhile projects.

Funding for the £77,000 scheme was approved by the Southampton Partnership - the same strategy group that last year rejected plans for a £250,000 bronze replica Spitfire, which would have stood on the roundabout outside the De Vere Grand Harbour.

Instead, the unelected board chose to splash £120,000 of Government cash on a controversial model of the city and £25,000 on 13 new welcome signs.

The same organisation was behind controversial plans to shoot laser beam lights out of the Civic Centre clock tower.

They were scrapped last year.

Newcastle-based artist Simon Watkinson was commissioned to create the walls lighting scheme, which will be flicked on at a high profile ceremony on March 16.

His influence can already be seen around Southampton at the Holyrood Church ruins, inside the 14th century Lankaster's Vault and at the new Telephone House flats development.

He has also created public art for local authorities in Leicester, Sunderland, Slough, Newcastle, Salford and Poole.

Southampton could soon bill itself as the City of Lights with a decision on a proposal to illuminate the Itchen Bridge due shortly.