Peer signs up to help cinema project

A BRADFORD-BORN peer is to help a social enterprise with its major plan to revitalise a derelict former landmark cinema into a new entertainment venue.

Bradford Live, the ambitious regeneration project to transform the city’s Odeon cinema into a “world class” music and events hub, has appointed Lord Andrew Mawson as its patron.

In partnership with the NEC Group and Bradford Council, Bradford Live aims at transforming the old cinema into a commercially viable and sustainable 4,000-capacity venue, which is due to open in autumn 2020.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has provided a grant of £4m from the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund to support the project.

Lord Mawson has more than 35 years of experience as a social entrepreneur, and in 2015 he became executive chairman of Well North, which is using enterprise, creativity and innovation to try and deliver better health and wellbeing in 10 towns and cities across the North of England.

He said: “The redevelopment of the Odeon, if we join the dots and connect it to local communities across Bradford, will be an important generator of jobs and skills in the city.”

Bradford Live is a social enterprise formed in 2012 to find a long-term use for the Odeon, which has been derelict since 2000. Director Lee Craven said Lord Mawson “brings a wealth of experience and proven success in the field of public/private partnerships, and will infuse this knowledge into the Bradford Live team. We’re looking forward to working with him.”