A Cinema for Acton

https://forms.gle/QpT2UJzrTNDurfek9

Thank you so much for all your support on the journey towards having our own cinema in Acton. We are all feeling very positive, hopeful and enthusiastic! An essential part of our project is to operate a venue where everyone feels welcome and we woud llke the programming to reflect you - our community. To help us with this it would be wonderful if you could take the time to complete this survey. It won’t take long and your contribution will help inform and support us.

A major milestone towards a cinema in Acton High Street has been passed. Ealing Council planners have given the go-ahead for the community-inspired idea the Acton Arts Group has fought more than three years for. Hundreds of residents, businesses and the Council Itself combined to raise £115k to get the plan for a two-screen cinema and cafe-bar onto the drawing board and towards reality. The plan aims to save the classic Grade Two-listed Old Library building and kick-start a regeneration of the High Street. It's taken close to £30k so far for a team of surveyors, cinema designers, architects, acoustics experts and heritage advisors to come up with the winning plan, which also makes provision for a much-needed school on the upper floors for children with a diagnosis of autism. The big challenge now is navigating the course of Covid. The pandemic has severely resticted arts venues. The cinema's financial backers and the Council see it as a long-term winner. But between them they have to find ways of seeing a big investment through the restrictions period without unsustainable losses. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of residents the cinema project has won every battle faced so far. There's no doubt Corona is the biggest yet

Many of you have made lovely, positive comments to us about the planning application for the building. Could you also spare a few minutes to comment on the Ealing website? That would be fantastic - thank you. https://pam.ealing.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=QB1FY1JMMQB00

with the planning application in we are optimistically moving forward. We would not have been able to get all the work done behind the application without the funds from you all. Thank you!

Please be assured that we have not stopped working to achieve our aims for the old library. The really exciting news is that the planning application has now been submitted and we would love you to take a look at the application. Here you can finally see more about the plans for the building and the cinema: 202045FUL https://pam.ealing.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=QB1FY1JMMQB00

You will be wondering what is happening with the cinema project. We want to assure all of you that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and it is all about the planning! ARC Cinema Solutions are currently undertaking the work that needs happen before the planning application can be submitted. ARC’s lead consultant is Andrew Robertshaw, who has over 40 years’ experience in the cinema industry, the last 25 working in cinema design, project coordination and development. Their clients include Art House in Crouch End, the Soho House Group in Dean Street and the Olympic Cinema in Barnes. We will let you know as soon as the application is in process because that will take us one step closer to finalising the lease between Ealing and the Acton Arts Project. The Acton Arts Project website – A Cinema for Acton - has been given a fantastic new look by our friend Kal Di Paola and we expect to be launching the site imminently. We continue to need your support, your fundraising ideas and your positive energy.