CHESTER is one step nearer a £23m Lottery jackpot to fund a cutting-edge visitor centre at its Roman amphitheatre.

The city's English Heritage backed bid to the Big Lottery's Living Landmarks contest beat off competition from historic sites including Hadrian's Wall to become one of just 76 of 350 bids to make the next round.

Architects are now set to do battle to win the right to design a landmark visitor attraction on part of the amphitheatre.

The city council's cabinet was last night set to approve a Royal Institute of British Architects organised competition to design the building.

That would help determine whether the chapel wing of Grade II listed former convent school Dee House is demolished to enable the excavation of the rest of the arena in the wake of digs over the last two summers.

Lottery representatives last week visited the site and grilled council officers about their funding bid ahead of judging for the next round.

Only half of bids still in the running will qualify for a grant of up to £250,000 to fund a detailed application.

That would pave the way for Chester to make a full £19m bid, with a separate application for around £4m in match funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund taking the total to near £23m.

The council's project manager, Richard Spensley, said: 'We're very pleased. It's a big achievement given the level of competition.

'But there's still a long way to go. I believe only 30 of the projects will finally get the funding and we won't know for certain until September 2007.

'Obviously we would have to look for other sources of funding and review the scheme if we didn't get the money.'

Cllr Ann Farrell, member for culture, added: 'We're very excited about the possibility of getting a large sum of money to do something really spectacular for tourists and residents.

'This is long overdue because the site looked extremely sad for years.

'It will have incredibly positive implications for the economy.'

The proposed Centre for Roman and Post Roman Chester and Britain is likely to replace the current centre on Vicars Lane and create hundreds of new jobs, boosting visitor numbers by an estimated 40,000 each year.

It would tell the story of Chester and its amphitheatre over the last 2,000 years and may be linked to the Roman Gardens by a bridge over Souters Lane.

The project could include an audio-visual model showing the amphitheatre through time and a 360 degree virtual reconstruction of the sounds and smells of the day.

Exhibitions of artefacts, replica Roman armour for visitors to use and an outdoor performance space may feature.

And the site could also include a family history centre, national centre for Roman studies and skills training for heritage, retail and tourism-related employment.

Two public consultation events in February and March were attended by around 100 people.