Cinema deal no closer (From Stroud News and Journal)

Cinema deal no closer

DESPITE months of discussion and negotiation Stroud seems no closer to getting its long-awaited cinema.

Stroud's Mayor Cllr John Marjoram has described the situation as 'looking gloomy.'

But senior officers at Stroud District Council have defended the apparent lack of progress saying that while the builders have not moved into Merrywalks things are still moving forward behind the scenes.

"We're still waiting for the conclusion of discussions between the developers Deeley Freed and Streetlands which owns the Merrywalks shopping centre," said Barry Wyatt, special projects officer at the council.

Discussions revolve around the issue of access between the cinema and the existing Merrywalks site, which would provide an easy link to the town centre.

The council has been waiting for a new submission from the would-be developers for some time but Mr Wyatt insisted it had little leverage to speed things up.

"The ball's in their court," he said.

The site is still owned by the district council, which has the option to pull the plug on the plans at any stage.

But Mr Wyatt said this would be foolish. "I don't think the discussions have bottomed out and no suggestion has been made that they will," he said.

He accepted the council was disappointed not to have seen a fresh set of plans yet.

But he refuted rumours that the council had cooled to the idea of a cinema. "The plan was proposed in the first place for a cinema," he said.

"Other things were tacked onto it to make it more viable." Stroud's mayor, Cllr John Marjoram, said he was very disturbed by the situation.

"I think it's going nowhere," he said. "It's been going on for so long you have to wonder if the talks are going to collapse.

"Things are looking pretty gloomy and I'd be happy to see the whole plan scrapped," he said.

"Stroud desperately needs a cinema but I think we'd be better off with something smaller on the site of the old cinema.

"This current deal is just not working out."