Grant boost for cinema group (From Gazette Series)

Grant boost for cinema group

VOLUNTEERS beginning the restoration of the cinema in Wotton-under-Edge can purchase vital equipment with an award from Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-op.

A £1,000 Co-op community dividend grant to the Electric Cinema Company will buy materials and equipment such as paint, floor covering and safety gear.

These will be used by a team of volunteers who are moving in, following the completion of phase one building work to restore the cinema.

The Electric Cinema Company was founded by people who pledged to restore and run the cinema in Wotton-under-Edge. They formed a charity that will enable any eventual financial surplus to be ploughed back into the community via Wotton Recreational Trust.

Committee member Janet Biagioli said: "The cinema will be available for all ages and it will benefit those who cannot drive or do not wish to use public transport to travel to other cinemas.

"Wotton is an isolated rural community with a mixed economic environment - the aim is to provide a cinema for 100,000 people within an eight-mile radius."

Once the cinema opens it will be run by volunteers as an Independent Provident Society.

Formation of the society has been overseen by Helen McComb, of Co-operative Futures in Cheltenham.

Mrs Biagioli added: "The co-operative nature of the Electric Cinema Company project makes it particularly appropriate to receive a Co-op community dividend grant."