True cost of saving historic cinema is revealed

Repairs to a historic cinema could cost between £500,000-£700,000, the organisation which is hoping to buy it has revealed.

Keighley Town Council is currently in negotiations with Bradford Council, owners of The Picture House on North Street, about taking control of the site.

A campaign to save the Grade II listed building was launched after cash-strapped Bradford Council said it would be sold at auction, but efforts to buy it stalled in October when surveys revealed structural issues.

Despite that, it has has remained open while the two parties try to thrash out a deal, and Joe Cooney, Keighley's town clerk, said the council was "still committed to the long-term future of the cinema".

Cooney said: "When we looked at purchasing the building, we got a building condition survey done.

"That threw up some quite significant costs: between £500,000 to £700,000 of work.

"Obviously, you don't buy a building if you're going to have to invest [up to] £1m on top.

"We're still trying to come up with a solution with Bradford Council where the building is transferred to the town council without having to buy it."

The two-screen cinema first opened in 1913 and has been owned by Bradford Council since the 1980s and run by a leaseholder.

Originally, Keighley Town Council had pledged to find the £110,000 needed to meet the building's asking price.

Cooney said if a free transfer was agreed, then other sources of funding would be explored to carry out the repair and restoration work.

The council was looking at the "best way" to do that, he explained.

"People need to continue to support and use it while we sort out the 'back office' element of it," he said.

Cooney added that he was hopeful things would "start moving" over the summer regarding a deal.

Jack Bottomley, the cinema's manager, said: "It is just something that we're having to wait for them to decide on.

"We've just been doing our job, keeping the place as tidy as we can and keeping business going and trying to promote all the schedules."

Bottomley said that one upside of all the publicity surrounding the sale was an increase in younger people using the cinema.

"We're really, really grateful for all the messages of support that we have received," he said.

"I just want to stress, we are not shut and it's business as usual and we're looking forward to a busy Easter holidays."

Last year, local campaigners launched a £300,000 crowdfunding campaign to help pay for a buyout and secure the cinema's future in the longer term.

A petition started by Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore was also presented to Parliament in September with more than 5,000 signatures.

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