Cinema funding scheme sparks row

The council says people in Newbury have called for the cinema

A political row has broken out over a council's plan to subsidise a new town centre cinema.

West Berkshire Council has agreed to use car parking charges to provide £500,000 to help the cinema in Newbury run in its first five years.

But Reading West MP Martin Salter has criticised the plan, saying taxpayers outside Newbury do not support the use of public money to back the cinema.

The council said a 13,000-strong petition shows the strength of support.

Apollo Cinemas agreed a deal to open the six-screen multiplex on the site of the Market Street car park.

[My constituents] will probably rarely see and almost certainly never use a cinema located 17 miles away from where they live Martin Salter, MP Reading West

As part of the deal the council must provide £100,000 a year for the next five years to support the cinema.

Mr Salter said all 500 people who signed a petition he raised in the Calcot, Tilehurst, Purley and Pangbourne areas, object to the plan.

He is calling for parish councils closest to the town to be asked to contribute to the scheme.

"[This is] so that those who stood to benefit from the cinema subsidy would pay more than my constituents who will probably rarely see and almost certainly never use a cinema located 17 miles away from where they live," he said.

Councillor Royce Longton, leader of the authority, said of the idea of asking for parish council contributions: "We simply don't need it.

"We are asking users to pay, not taxpayers wherever they live in West Berkshire.

"As leader I cannot justify asking parishes for funding when the additional car parking income the cinema will generate will more than cover the payment."