Windermere councillor Ben Berry is calling on South Lakeland’s Liberal Democrat Council to use a crunch meeting on 18 July to remove the Royalty Cinema in Bowness from a list of sites it has put forward to the Lake District National Park Authority for redevelopment.
This is the date (18 July) when the council’s cabinet will meet to approve its formal submission to the National’s Park’s consultation on the area’s new Local Plan, which identifies sites where redevelopment can take place over the next 15-years.
Before the meeting, councillor Berry and Windermere campaigner Jane Hoyle will present a petition urging the council’s Liberal Democrat administration to remove the Royalty from the list of council-owned sites put forward for redevelopment.
In June, when it was revealed that the cinema was at-risk, the council issued strenuous denials that inclusion on the site-list posed any threat to the much-loved institution’s future.
However, earlier this month - in the face of growing public anger - the council changed its tune and conceded that the Royalty was at risk by coming forward with a last-minute proposal to designate the facility as a cultural asset within the National Park’s redevelopment plan.
Councillor Ben Berry said: “The Royalty is too important to be left to the whims of developers for the next 15-years. The council let the cat out of the bag this month when it conceded that the future of the cinema was at risk by scrabbling together a last-minute promise to give it a special designation in the future.
“They are making it up as they go along and need to swallow their pride, admit they made a mistake in putting the Royalty site forward for redevelopment, and use their Cabinet meeting on 18 July to formally withdraw the cinema site from the National Park’s Local Plan.”
The petition asking South Lakeland District Council to withdraw the site for redevelopment can still be signed at: https://www.westmorlandconservatives.org.uk/form/don-t-let-the-credits-roll-on-th