MOVES to create a multi-million-pound cultural centre in the heart of Southampton took a step closer to reality this week.

Members of the corporate committee voted in favour of proposals to bulldoze the former Tyrrell &Green store and C&A to create an ambitious arts quarter for Southampton.

The proposals could take up to four years to materialise but councillors took the first step by launching a formal "expression of interest".

Funding for the multi-million- pound complex was a sensitive subject in the council chamber as the Labour-led administration battles to get its budget back on target.

But leisure executive member Councillor Derek Burke gave an undertaking that nothing would be spent on the project until the city's leisure provision was back in the red.

"I can assure you we will wait until our finances are sorted before starting on anything like this - but it is a great opportunity for the city," he said. Leisure officer Paul Mawson said the cultural complex would include a 500-seater theatre, a 150-seater studio, workshop space, gallery and dance studio.

The council is planning to sell off property assets to raise up to £3 million for the scheme, and a further £7m will have to be found from other sources including lottery grant funding.

Tory councillors welcomed the initiative and called for the exciting plans to embrace the concept of a 24- hour city - and not operate on a nine- to-five basis.

Conservative group leader Councillor David Abraham added a note of caution to the debate when he said the council must ensure the northern Above Bar area did not totally die in the intervening months.

"We need to keep the area as lively as possible in the meantime, especially as it could be many years before anything happens," he said.

Liberal Democrat councillors complained the council was not being ambitious enough in its plans and said the city should try to attract funding for a building like the world- famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

But their plans failed to gain the support of Labour and Tory councillors - Councillor Paul Jenks said it was better to achieve smaller-scale plans than nothing at all.