Teignbridge Council met this morning to debate (not for the first time) the proposal to provide a new 4-screen cinema in NA. This would be provided by private funding with council help. The debate hinged on the request for Council to contribute £600,000 towards the fitting-out costs, which will be considerably more than that of course. The current provider of local cinema is Scotts, and they may or may not be involved with any new cinema. Others apparently are interested if Scotts aren’t. No money will be made available until or unless a firm commitment is made by a provider to the project.
It’s fair to say it was a wide-ranging debate largely focused on whether NA wanted a new cinema.
I have deliberated over this for some time, as I certainly recognise it is a considerable sum of public money. I never want to waste public money!
Eventually, we had to vote, for or against
Reservations were expressed along the lines of…yes to a cinema but not where it’s proposed and not 4 screens but 2 and there isn’t enough car parking space in town and this will fail. ie much negativity from the usual sources.
It was disappointing to me to listen to the negative voices as doom and gloom are never uplifting.
I accept that we are heading into perhaps the biggest most painful recession in living memory and any recreational facility may well struggle in the short term…BUT a positive vision of the future is needed. IMO we need to get NA into a position to welcome and profit from the upturn in economic fortunes as and when that happens…and it will. It’s vitally important that NA has attractions in place, to attract people into the town for general economic benefits. We may well be entering a dark tunnel, but we have to believe that there is light at the end of that tunnel and plan accordingly.
The population of the town is growing and NA simply must be in a position to benefit.
So, the vote came down at least in part to the optimistic versus the pessimistic. Negative voices will always be heard, and they have already proved themselves to be in the wrong in the past time and again.
I voted for a positive future for our town, and believe it was absolutely the right thing to do. The vote was won by a substantial margin.