PLANS for a snow dome in Southampton took major step forward today after five rival developers said they wanted to build it.

The developers, who include the UK’s largest indoor ski operator, last night officially registered their interest for the multi-million pound project.

Southampton City Council wants the real-snow ski slope to rise up on the site of the city’s Town Depot, next to the Itchen Bridge.

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As revealed by the Daily Echo on Monday, the indoor slope will be covered with tonnes of fresh snow every day and become the skiing mecca of Southern England.

It will also transform the industrial site into a huge leisure centre, which could also include shops, restaurants and flats on the River Itchen waterfront.

Councillor Royston Smith, the council’s deputy leader, said he was pleased with the level of commercial interest shown in the ambitious scheme.

“The fact there are five different people interested in providing an indoor ski facility makes me even more confident it will happen and shows it is a good idea,” Cllr Smith said.

The Daily Echo has learned Sno!Zone, which operates ski slopes at Xscape leisure centres at Leeds, Milton Keynes and Glasgow, is one of the competing developers.

However, the Southampton snow dome will not be an Xscape-style development as the company has no plans to expand that brand at the moment.

Instead SnoZone!, a part of the X-Leisure Group, has teamed up with an unnamed property developer to make a joint bid for the Town Depot site.

Sno!Zone are convinced there is a market for indoor skiing on the south coast and believe Southampton would make an ideal location.

It would be the first snow dome on the south coast, with the nearest almost 100 miles away in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

The council will now assess the financial standing and track record of the five potential developers. In March a shortlist will be selected and invited to submit more detailed bids.

A preferred developer should be appointed later in the year, but work won’t start until after the city’s waste operations are relocated to the docks in 2011.

About 20 surrounding businesses could be forced to make way for the snow dome and the council has confirmed it would consider using its Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers.

Angry business owners, who would be compensated if forced to relocate, claim the council had left them “in the dark” over the redevelopment plans.

Cllr Smith responded: “They will be given all the information they need and we will do everything we can to make sure it is seamless.

“I understand most of it will be relocatable within a short distance of where they are now and that there are lots of opportunities around that area.”