Town won’t get cinema in next year as promised

BUT COUNCIL LEADER ‘STILL OPTIMISTIC’ OF FINAL OUTCOME

A TOWN will not get a cinema within the next 12 months, a council leader says.

Councillor Richard Blunt, pictured, leader of North West Leicestershire District Council, made the admission at the annual meeting of the authority.

The Conservative group had made a cinema for Coalville one of its pledges before the district council elections in 2019.

Coun Blunt said it will no longer be possible to fulfil a pledge to get it completed prior to next year’s elections.

He was questioned by Liberal Democrat councillor Michael Wyatt, who said: “I want to ask the leader about the promise he made in 2019 about the cinema in Coalville.

“Just wondering if there’s any progress? Time is ticking. You’ve got less than 12 months.”

Coun Blunt said: “We are in detailed negotiations with people who can provide cinemas.

“They are highly commercially sensitive and I am optimistic that somebody will step forward with some proposals.

“It won’t get built in the next year, but the main thing is that we get somebody and they come up with a credible plan that we support. That’s the best I can do at the moment.”

Last year, the council’s bid for £9 million from the government for an arts centre, the Lyceum, failed. Loss of funding for the building, which Coun Blunt said would have been a cinema in all but name, forced the council to look to other sources to get the plan back on track.

In February, he vowed to get the cinema sorted in the next year.

“If there were nothing happening at all, or all interested parties walked away, I would announce that,” he said.

“For the moment, now that the world is waking up after coronavirus, activity is up again.

“There is demand in the catchment area in Coalville compared to going to the nearest cinema,” he said.

“We all know that cinemas drive the night-time economy, so I’m still optimistic.

“I don’t control it, it’s down to private individuals who control it, but I still believe we will get at least one proposal and hopefully more. We’ll make the best decision and go with it.”