NEW plans to regenerate Newton Abbot see the Alexandra Cinema building dropped from the multi-million-pound proposals designed to boost the local economy.

But councillors considering the revised plans next week, are being warned that the Future High Street-funded transformational project could fail if the Government does not accept a revised timetable for spending the £9.2 million grant funding.

Councillors will be asked to approve the updated business plan and commit a further £600,000 to building the new cinema – ahead of a December Government update.

The cinema proposal has the support of an independent report by specialist consultants Entertainment Solution Services (ESS) which looked at the council’s regeneration plans and concluded that a four-screen cinema is viable and would boost the night-time economy with improved social and leisure opportunities.

The investigation was requested by councillors who were concerned about the future of cinema due to changing viewing habits caused by the pandemic.

The latest proposals will also see carbon emissions reduced by switching heating in the cinema from gas to electric and:

The report to next week’s extraordinary full council (November 17) concludes that the ‘project represents value for money, has a strategic case, is viable, is affordable and is achievable within the timeframe of the grant funding.’

It says that the funding is ‘unlikely to be available again in the foreseeable future’ and the £13 million regeneration investment will provide a £42.3 million economic benefit to the town.

Under the new plans, no decision would be made on the future of the Alexandra Cinema building until the new cinema was built. One of the options, says the report, would be to offer the building for rent, long leasehold or sale of the freehold - for example for arts and culture, food and drink, live music and events.

Cinema plans a boost to economy

The consultants’ report highlights that UK cinema admissions are over 30% down on the same 2019 pre-pandemic period and says: ‘Production delays, changed viewing habits and general uncertainty within the market, will push back the timeline on a full recovery for cinema owners, according to some trade experts, until 2023/2024.’

ESS argues that the impact of the pandemic, inflation and rising living costs, means cinemas need to reinvent themselves and become ‘event driven social and community hubs’. The report concludes that the council’s regeneration plans, which includes food and drink outlets underneath the cinema and in the market hall, would deliver this opportunity, arguing that cinemas provide an uplift in town centre activity, particularly in holiday periods or during the 6pm – 9pm trading times.

The report highlights a number of case studies which show that the benefit could be as much as 11% on food and beverage sales and 8% on footfall.

It states: ‘Newton Abbot has the capacity to deliver a similar % uplift if all of the component parts work in unison – transport links, car parking, F&B (food and beverage) and cinema combined with social value impacts.’