DELIGHTED pensioners will be able to watch their favourite flicks after generous members of the public footed the bill for their movie licence.

All good films deserve a happy ending, and so it has proved for the residents of the Lawns sheltered housing in Benfleet. They were inundated with offers after it was revealed Castle Point Council was refusing to buy a £99 video screening licence for the building’s communal area.

So far they have received £300 in donations, enough to keep them legally watching films for the next three years.

One of the cheques came from as far away as Surrey, while Manchester-based comedian Jimmy Cricket even sent in some of his live shows on DVD for them to watch once the licence had been restored.

The kind donations mean Les Allen, who has led the campaign after his DVD player was confiscated from the building’s communal room, is now once more planning to show his box set of Carry On films.

Mr Allen, 81, said: “It really is brilliant.

“It’s absolutely amazing the way it has snowballed. We’re all just stunned.

“I was wondering whether to make a fuss of it when we were first told we couldn’t watch DVDs, but now I’m so glad I did.”

Mr Allen said he intended to set up an account to store the money they have received to pay for future licences.

Judy Barton, 43, and her partner Richard Saada, 45, of Norwich Avenue, Southend, decided to help out after reading about the issue in the Echo.

She said: “The council seemed to be being a bit mean to these folks who are in their twilight years. Hopefully now they’ll be able to watch as many films as they like.”

The row began after an internal council investigation revealed the home did not have a public screening licence.

The licences are required when films on video or DVD are shown to the public, for example in schools, community centres or even old people’s homes.

The licence pays for the public screening of copyrighted material, and the fee is redistributed among film studios.