Theatre repairs 'could cost £4m'

The centre is Llanelli's only cinema and theatre complex

Llanelli's ageing cinema and theatre will close if new facilities can be built elsewhere in the town.

Heating problems temporarily shut the council-run Entertainment Centre over the Christmas holidays and long-term refurbishment costs are put at £3m-£4m.

It had been hoped a new theatre would be built as part of a complex at North Dock, but a bid for £18m Lottery funding failed at the final hurdle.

The council is now searching for new sites and funding for a replacement.

The £25m Works - described by Carmarthenshire Council as a "cultural village" - would have transformed the Old Castle Works site at North Dock.

Despite being the only bid from Wales to make it from over 400 initial applications to a final shortlist of nine, it was turned down for funding by the Big Lottery's Living Landmarks programme in November.

The council's head of leisure, Ian Jones, said that decision had been a "huge disappointment" but alternative options were now being worked on.

"The scheme was born out of the need for a purpose built theatre in Carmarthenshire," he said.

There are still quite a few irons in the fire Ian Jones, Carmarthenshire Council

"We got to the last stage and we were the last in Wales.

"We also felt with the Olympics having taken so much of the good cause funding to the south east [of England], perhaps there would be a little bit of pressure on the distributors.

"We have got an excellent scheme that sits on the shelf - so we are in the process of looking whether we can break it up."

He said officers were reconsidering where in Llanelli it could go.

"We still feel Llanelli is the best area for it partly [because of] the need to significantly upgrade or replace the Entertainment Centre because of its age and condition."

The centre opened in 1938 as one large cinema, seating almost 1,500 people, but was split in 1971 into the current three separate sections.

"We have just closed this Christmas for a week because of a problem with the boiler - it appears to be like an annual problem.

"The roof leaks and there are other major problems you can appreciate with a building of that age.

"If we were to refurbish it, it would cost £3 to £4m as a minimum and we would still have a compromise building.

"Perhaps we will look at commercial cinema coming into the town centre and perhaps striking a deal with an operator to run a theatre as well.

"There are still quite a few irons in the fire.

"We are just taking the reports through the council's political structure now to update them and hopefully safeguard some of the match funding the authority had in place."