Full details of the former Ritz Cinema can now be found on the Intali website.  Remember, if you know of sombody who is in the cinema industry or a property developer who is interested in an great investment oppertunity, this is the time to get in touch.  There has already been a lot of interest in th building since it went up for sale so vist (or tell you friend to vist ) www.intali.com where you wil currently see the site on the home page as a featured property.

As announced in the papers this week, the current owners of the site have put it up foar sale.  Whilst this does not mean that the former Ritz / Kwiksave is safe, it DOES mean that it’s current owners are doing everything they can to sell it, and sell it for use as a cinema.

Think back just 3 months ago when it looked almost certain that the site was going to be lost and Harborough would never have a cinema.  Now it looks likley that the new owners of the site will buy it with a view to making it into a cinema once more.  

Harborough based property company Intali are actively marketing the site to cinema chains and property developers. They can be contatced on 01858 469 123 for more information if you are interested in buying or know sombody within the cinema industry who you think would make a useful contact for them.

There has already been some interested so lets hope the momentum keep up.  

As seen on the front page of Fridays Mercury and on HFM and BBC Radio Leiceter, there has been a big move forward in the campaign.

First of all we have handed in the petition to the council.  In total 8,000 peope have now signed the petition making it the biggest one seen in the town for several decades.  Thank you to eveybody who took the time to visit this site or sign their name up in the shops.  There have been hundreds of people including shop owners who have made this possible.

The result of this pressure has helped us influence the councils position over a cinema.  Three years ago when John Merryweather went to the council explaining the ecconomic arguments.  At the time due to Government priorities, it was felt that housing and retal had to take priority over leisure and that even if a suitable site emerged, it would have to be given over to those uses. Now however, the council has said that this has changed.  An independent report shows that the towns cinema population including the villages is actually 65,000 plus and that a cinema is a priority for the town and a small multi-screen would be viable.

More that that, the council is going to set up a Cinema Task Force with an aim of attracting a suitable property developer to the town prepared to set up a 4 screen in the town. The group will be made up of council staff as well as experts who have experiance of putting such plans together.

None of this would have happened without the campaign and the support of the people of the area.

Also discussed at the meeting was what do do about the lack of cinema facilities in the area and a seperate group was set up to look at short term measures.  In particular, the group will look at making more of the existing Cinema Club in the town.  There will be more news about this on the site in the future, including up to date listings shown at the Harborough Theatre, which may in future include a version of the ‘ABC Minors’ club! 

Thanks to the Tim at the Leicester Mercury for putting the story about the cinema on the front page again.  Tim has spoken to the owner of Real Cinemas in Loughborough who has a chain of old refurbished cinemas across theUK.  He is still interested in the Harborough site and would be a great option to redevelp the building as he has so much experiance at doing this. �

Thank you again for all your thoughts.  I am trying to add as many of you comments as possibe to the site.

Here are the most recent examples:

JON WALKER comments - I would come to Harboro to see films in preference to the Odeon at Kettering. Why knock down a purpose built cinema which could so easily be converted to a 4 or more screen cinema.

Richard Clifton  – its a no brainer , Harborough must have a cinema.   Back in the day i used to love my saturday mornings in the abc minors . i look foward to watching how this works out .

David Bramwell  – Surely a town the size of Harborough should have a cinema. We would certainly go on a regular basis.

Alison Potter – Please re-open the old cinema……it would be perfect for the town to have a local cinema

 Jo Lee – My mother lives in Faversham, Kent, and would like to tell you that they changed a Bingo Hall in an old cinema back into a cinema with lots of help from Sir Bob Geldof (who lives there). It was a hard slog.lots of empathis on community value etc, and the town hasn’t looked back. The cinema is doing well even though Faversham is smaller than Harborough. Perhaps the cinema could also hold Bingo sessions to help with revenue, or multi-use.

Ann Tidmarsh – I strongly support the cinema campaign and think the original site is the best. It would be marvellous for the town and everybody for miles around.

 Hugh Sykes – Delighted to hear and read about The Ritz Cinema. Born in the Town it was my local until 1963. I came to the last night in 1978 with much saddness. Now with prospect of re-opening it would be of great benefit to the Town. My sincere good wishes to you all. 

We are having an important meeting with the council on Thursday (11th) at 4pm.  Please foward an e-mail to as many people as you know and ask them to sign up online. The more names we have the stonger our voice with the council and the better the chance we have of making a breakthrough with this campaign!