Town councillors bid to buy cinema site for £1

A community cinema could be bought for just £1 after parish councillors stepped in to try to save it.

Reform-led Barnsley Council has cancelled a planned renovation of Penistone Town Hall, home to the Penistone Paramount cinema, as part of its budget review.

The previous Labour administration had approved funding for a £1.8m redevelopment of the Art Deco-style cinema.

Town councillors are now offering to purchase the entire town hall building for just £1, which they say is an appropriate price as it needs huge refurbishment. They say they can access other funding to carry out the renovation work.

Barnsley Council acquired the town hall in 1974 and ran the Paramount until the early 1990s when it was threatened with closure.

Penistone town councillors then stepped in, leased the building from Barnsley Council and took on the day-to-day running of the cinema.

Barnsley Council was going to use government funding to expand the venue with an additional 50-seat cinema, cafe and bar but said it could no longer commit due to a £30m budget gap in its finances.

Baroness Hannah Kitching, Mayor of Penistone, said town councillors of all political parties had unanimously agreed to approach Barnsley Council to make an offer.

She said: "The reason we are offering £1 is because that building is in quite a state of disrepair and has been neglected by Barnsley Council for pretty much the last 50 years.

"It is watertight thanks to a new roof a couple of years ago but prior to that we had buckets dotted all around the Paramount to catch the drips when it rained.

"The rest of the building really isn't fit for purpose. It doesn't meet accessibility requirements, it doesn't meet fire regulations, there is no heating system and it has basically been stripped out waiting for this long-promised renovation work to begin.

"The work would have brought the building up to standard but the plug has now been pulled and there's no plans to spend any further money.

"Barnsley Council are not prepared to invest in it and so we thought it was time to buy it back for the people of Penistone."

Penistone Town Hall was built in 1914 and films have been shown there since 1915.

More than 4,000 people have signed a petition to save the venue.

Kitching added: "We don't have millions of pounds to spend but the difficulty we've had for a number of years is the funding committed by Barnsley Council has made the building ineligible for other sources of funding.

"We can now look at external grants and there's the possibility of crowdfunding.

"As a parish council we have powers to borrow money or as a last resort, increase the council tax precepts."

Barnsley Council has been approached for comment but previously said it had stopped the project after reviewing its capital programme and needed to ensure future investment was" focused where it could deliver best value for our residents".

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