15th Sep 2020

Tenterden Cinema Company, the community group charged with progressing the potential for a new cinema for the town, has recommended cutting costs by up to £750,000 to help bring the project to completion and adding more revenue-generating activity to help its financial viability.

A letter from the company’s chairman, Mr Tom Evans, was presented to last night’s (Monday, 14 September) Tenterden Town Council meeting, accepting the council’s decision to suspend further discussions on the cinema for at least two months to assess the impact of Covid-19.

Mr Evans added: “We continue to believe that a neighbourhood cinema development would have a major impact on the town’s regeneration, post-pandemic, but the present scheme is too expensive”, and requested that the architects Burrell Foley Fischer be asked to reduce the cost of the scheme by between £500,000-£750,000.

The projected cost of a two-screen cinema is around £3 million, of which the Town Council has pledged £500,000 towards the refurbishment of the Pebbles and to cover initial surveys, designs and fees.

It was accepted that adding new revenue-generating activity to the cinema building would help finance the project, and Town Clerk Phil Burgess will be discussing possibilities with the architects.

Mr Evans said that the company would be discussing with other cinema operators their views on the industry and an indication of their willingness to invest in a Tenterden cinema.