South-East Northumberland Cinema Overload, Who will blink first?

Obsessive social media users may have noticed that this year's prize for the ugliest new build in the UK is leaning fairly and squarely towards Glen Sanderson’ the Tory Leader of Northumberland County Council’s ‘cinema and conservative culture centre smack bang in the middle of the Counties largest town, Blyth.

It featured in a recent article in the SUN newspaper blaming Labour for the state of the Town, missing out the fact that the decision making at County Hall has been orchestrated by the Tories since 2017 with the SUN backing a shift to REFORM whose recent articles on social media seem to lean towards a liking for the ‘brick cree’ as its becoming referred to yet Blyth residents appear to abhor its existence.

But today we need to shift the argument away from politics towards the poorly managed business model being chosen to be delivered to South East Northumberlands residents by Tories at County Hall.

Cinemas are in decline worldwide. This decline is attributed to several factors, including the rise of streaming services, economic challenges, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet even after this decline was well and truly documented Northumberland Tories chose the option to build two new cinemas in addition to the well established Vue cinema in Cramlington, one in Blyth and one in Ashington.

It's the economic challenge which interests us at SEN as the cinema running costs will fall fairly and squarely onto the very tightly squeezed (through the Tories massive borrowing costs) finances, as your Council Tax will be exposed to the cost of these new cinemas if they can’t wipe their nose, these are costs which should not sit on your shoulders.

The competition is immense in the cinema world and pressure from entertainment facilities across the Tyne and Wear conurbation have just opened up to easy access to SEN residents with the reopening of the Northumberland Line to passenger transport.

Residents need to keep up the pressure on South East Northumberland’s new County Councillors to ensure the costs of these facilities don’t sit as a burden on your household bill for years to come as at least one of these sites will be in financial trouble once the novelty of a new cinema in your Town has worn off.