Redcar Regent cinema: Council pressed on plans for unused venue

Work has been completed on the three-screen cinema which is looking for an operator

A council has been asked if it has a "Plan B" over the £9.6m Regent cinema which had been due to open this summer.

At a full council meeting, it was suggested Redcar and Cleveland Council had overreached itself with plans for the building to replace the 1920s-built cinema on the seafront.

The original cinema closed in 2018 after it was declared unsafe.

One councillor has predicted the council may end up taking over the operation of the unused venue.

The previous Regent Cinema was built in the 1920s

Since work on the three-screen cinema, restaurant and bar was completed earlier this year, the council has been looking for an operator to run it.

Previously the authority said it was "confident" an operator would be in place by June.

At a full meeting of the council, councillor Carl Quartermain asked when the Regent would open and what had been the delay.

He said: "Is there a Plan B, and if so for how long will the building remain empty before it is enacted? What everyone wants is to see it being opened and thriving as soon as possible."

Mr Quartermain also suggested the authority had not listened to the public over the final design, saying no one had asked for a multi-screen facility in a consultation carried out before construction.

It had been hoped the new cinema would be open in time for the summer

Cabinet member for economic development Christopher Gallacher said the project was still on track and repeated previous messages put out by the local authority that it was continuing to talk to an unnamed national firm about operating the cinema.

Labour group leader Alec Brown told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the addition of a restaurant and bar meant an operator was effectively running three different types of businesses.

Mr Brown said: "I think the only Plan B is for the council to run it."

The cinema saga recently led to the departure of councillor Billy Wells from the Cleveland Independent group - which forms one half of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats - after he was criticised for a Facebook post that named council officers and suggested they were delaying requests for information from members.