Plans for new Oswestry cinema scrapped over funding issues

Trevor Harris, who ran the Regal Cinema in Oswestry for decades, was granted planning permission for a cinema at a former church in The Citadel in King Street in December 2017.

He had submitted funding requests to Shropshire Council and Oswestry Town Council in a bid to bring a large cinema back into the centre of the town.

However those pleas were rejected, and he has scrapped the plans.

He has put £5,000 into the scheme to carry out studies and appoint an agent, and sold off his posters to raise the money.

He said the authorities have neglected the chance to bring a facility that is needed to Oswestry, and said a big cinema won’t come to Oswestry for many years.

He said: “We’ve scrapped the idea, it won’t be happening and a cinema like this won’t come to the town for many years.

“We asked for grant funding from Shropshire and Oswestry council, but they said no.

“It seems some don’t care about Oswestry, and it is other towns get grant funding.

“We had planning permission, and I had sold my posters and other things to carry out studies to make sure the building was ready.”

“Now we have had to scrap the plans, and a cinema won’t be coming to Oswestry.

Planners said they hoped that being granted permission would help breathe new life back into the former carpet shop.

Kinoculture runs films at its premises in Oswestry throughout the week, and Mr Harris was hopefully another cinema could come to the town, creating new jobs and bringing new releases.

There would have been two evening screenings, and an additional screening on a Saturday.

Cineworld was set to build a cinema in Oswestry as part of the Smithfield development on Shrewsbury Road, but they pulled out of the plans.

Plans for that land have been re-submitted, but do not include a cinema.