LABOUR councillors have pledged to scrap a deal for Vue to take over the empty town centre cinema and “repurpose it” if they take control of Basildon Council.
Opposition councillors have railed against the administration’s deal with cinema chain Vue after a 20-year lease it was agreed last Thursday.
The current deal includes £3 million which will be paid to Vue in stages to get the cinema up and running, but Basildon Labour says the whole deal risks “bankrupting the council”.
Maryam Yaqub, councillor for St Martin’s and leader of the Labour group, has now pledged to scrap the deal altogether, in favour of “repurposing” the multi-million cinema.
The whole complex, including the cinema and six food and drink venues, cost the council £26.7million to build.
Despite being quizzed by the Echo on what Labour would use the cinema for instead, Mrs Yaqub said: “We don’t make decision by pulling ideas out of thin air.”
She said: “If Labour takes charge, we will immediately break the contract so that we do not run the risk of wasting even more taxpayer cash on a project that won’t work. The building needs to be repurposed.”
Mrs Yaqub said Labour would carry out a public consultation to garner resident views on the cinema’s future.
She said: “There’s this idea that ‘if not a cinema, then what’. But anything has got to be better than bankruptcy.
“It is true we didn’t try to stop it when we were in administration, but we didn’t foresee these issues.”
Patricia Reid, Labour councillor for Pitsea North West, suggested the cinema could be repurposed as an entertainment or conference venue.
She added: “If it needs to change from a cinema, we need to consult with residents to see what they want. It must be led by the people.”
When previous operator Empire Cinemas went into administration last July, Basildon Council took possession of it while searching for a new tenant.
Craig Rimmer, councillor responsible for tourism and economic growth, dismissed the suggestion of repurposing the building as “nonsense”.
He said: “It’s like building a swimming pool and saying, ‘let’s have a tennis court instead’.
“The deal has been done, but they’re playing politics at the very last moment.
“It just astounds me.”
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