THREE visions for the future of York's Barbican Centre site can today be revealed.

Four developers are vying to take the leisure centre into the 21st century, and the Evening Press has already shown one of the four schemes.

Details of the other bids received have yet to be officially released by City of York Council, but the Evening Press has learned their content.

The four bids are for:

- A casino, an eight-lane, county-standard swimming pool worth £6.5 million, a refurbished auditorium and residential flats. The scheme would retain the car park

- A similar swimming pool and auditorium to the one already there, with flats and a small hotel

- A swimming pool and auditorium with flats, including prestige homes overlooking the city walls

- A five-star hotel, exhibition arena and retention of the existing auditorium and swimming pool.

The Evening Press can also reveal there appears to be a significant snag in all four plans.

It has emerged that none of the bids will create enough cash for promised refurbishment work at Yearsley swimming pool and the building of a new sports centre - schemes with an estimated price tag of £3 million.

Received bids will create no more than £1 million for the council, it is claimed.

It is said the international conference centre plan would bring in no capital receipts at all.

A senior council source said today: "Those bids that have come back would produce only about £1 million in capital receipts.

"The exhibition centre scheme wouldn't produce anything in terms of money. We would lose the £600,000-a-year running costs we have at the moment, but we'd get nothing back.

"The developer's idea is that we transfer the site to them, and they would run the swimming pool and auditorium for the public."

Another proposal made could have raised the £3 million needed, he said.

"It would have refurbished the auditorium and swimming pool and kept the fitness suite, but would do away with the sports hall."

The source said: "For whatever reason, the developers haven't taken that bid any further."

The Barbican Centre, which was opened in the late 1980s and cost £10 million, was put up for sale after City of York Council announced it could not afford to continue funding swimming on the site, which needed major redevelopment.

Details of the bids are being organised by council officers before being presented for debate by councillors.

Council leader Rod Hills said today he could not comment until he had seen the details.

Updated: 11:29 Monday, May 20, 2002