A Derbyshire council is sticking with plans to turn a “dark, dank and embarrassing” building into a cinema despite struggling to find a developer who can afford it.
Derbyshire Dales District Council has voted to push forward with its plans to turn Matlock Market Hall, in Bakewell Road, into a two-screen cinema – along with wider aims for a restaurant/cafe, community facility and improvements to public areas around the site.
The project has been in the works for years but continues to struggle despite finally receiving several injections of funding from central Government, with developers not able to get the scheme done within the council’s budget.
Giles Dann, the council’s regeneration and place manager, said the outcome of two tenders resulting in a lack of suitable bids was a “highly disappointing position”.
He said: “We are in a very challenging market and there is a lot of unpredictability in terms of pricing.”
Mr Dann said the project was pitched altogether in an aim to achieve “economies of scale” but the council could look to split the scheme up in the hopes this would bring in suitable tenders.
Cllr Stuart Lees suggested this would see one firm carrying out works to the building itself and another carrying out the public area improvements – including repaving.
Cllr Peter O’Brien said the assurance that the approved budget for the project was “robust” was not being proven.
The council approved an initial budget of £1.3 million for the works, with two rounds of public tendering leaving the authority without a suitable bid.
The last round resulted in bids of £1.47 and £2 million, both of which were also found to have other flaws.
Cllr Martin Burfoot said: “Saying no to this project and withdrawing is no longer an option. Following years of procrastination before the former leader and members opposite came on board and promoted it… I have been campaigning on this issue for many, many years.
“It has caused a lot of heartache in the town for people who have been involved in that campaign because we have all been putting a lot of time and effort, including an architect, free time and other people who have expertise in procuring this sort of scheme.
“A cinema, I think, is the only serious use for this dark, dank basement of a site. It was never a success, it has been upgraded once or twice over the years but it has never been a success and stallholders dwindled over time until I think there were only one or two who turned up – so that was a total disaster.”
He dubbed it an “embarrassing empty building” which could be “derelict in perpetuity” if action is not taken.
Cllr Burfoor said the cinema project needed securing, with the cafe/restaurant possibly being deferred.
He said the works to the public area around the site needed to be retained, saying the paving was installed in 1985, was “badly in need of relaying” and was currently leaving “everyone dodging puddles”.
Cllr Peter Slack, co-deputy leader of the council, said prices for construction were only likely to increase further and said the priority should be to build the cinema.
Cllr Steve Flitter, leader of the council, said the council was in a “frustrating” situation but welcomed the retention of the proposed cinema operator, who remained committed to the scheme.
Councillors approved a plan to consider four options going forward, which are:
- Do nothing and scrap the scheme
- Re-tender the current scheme for a third time
- Reduce to just the cinema
- Reduce to the cinema but scale back cafe design and full public area improvements
The chosen option will be decided at a meeting in September, with the authority spending £8,000 on consultants to help it select which is the most viable.
The council has set further money aside to help bring the project along, but not for the primary building of the units, with some of this funding reserved for fitting out the actual cinema, sharing costs with the proposed operator.
Overall, the current cost for the cinema, cafe and other elements has now reached more than £2 million (£1.23 million for the market hall itself), with £868,737 in funding coming from Government grants.
Grant funding has a deadline to be spent, placing the council under further pressure to deliver, now listing the project as a risk to the authority requiring intervention.
