Councillor Ben Berry is urging South Lakeland’s Liberal Democrat District Council to go the extra mile to save the Royalty Cinema in Bowness by removing the site from a list of buildings put forward by the local authority for future redevelopment.
In response to growing community anger over the inclusion of the historic building in a list put forward by the council to the Lake District National Park Authority earlier this year, South Lakeland District Council has now promised to try to designate the Royalty as a cultural asset.
Commenting, councillor Ben Berry said: “The council is tying itself in knots over this issue. The only way to keep the cinema totally safe from redevelopment is to remove it from the National Park’s development plan.
“This much-loved Cinema can’t be completely safe while it remains allocated for redevelopment in the National Park’s plan. The council can spin all it likes but the only way to keep the site one hundred percent safe is to admit it has got this one badly wrong and formally remove the Royalty as a site for redevelopment.”
A petition asking South Lakeland District Council to withdraw the site for redevelopment can be found here: https://www.westmorlandconservatives.org.uk/form/don-t-let-the-credits-roll-on-th