Eastleigh citizens cannot wait for the curtain to rise on a multi-million-pound leisure production which would bring cinema back to the town in a spectacular way.

Film buffs, starved of the movies since the town's old Regal closed in the early 1980s, would have the pick of nine screens.

The leisure complex would also have a 20-lane indoor bowling centre, and a 70-bed hotel, next to the Swan Centre.

The glitzy new facilities, which would be linked to an 850-space car park and the shopping mall, would also include a health and fitness club, plus a series of caf bars, restaurants and pubs.

There was an instant positive reaction to the Daily Echo front page story breaking the news of plans to build the £25m entertainment complex.

The Daily Echo spoke to scores of people on the streets of Eastleigh, who believed that a cinema in the town was long overdue.

There was also an overwhelming view that the crowd-pulling leisure attractions would be a much-needed shot in the arm for a town which is in danger of lagging behind other shopping centres.

Civic chiefs now hope that the entertainment complex, if approved, would prove to be just the right catalyst to reinvigorate the town's economy.

Eastleigh town centre manager Dennis Chandler said: "The entertainment complex has been designed so it will be in sympathy with the architecture of Eastleigh.

"I believe the cinema will really reinvigorate the town."

Eastleigh's movie fans are relishing the prospect of watching blockbusting films on their own doorstep, without having to make an expensive trek into neighbouring Southampton.

What do you think of the proposals? E-mail newsdesk@soton-echo.co.uk