New plans are announced to redevelop town's old cinema site

The Regal Centre off Goldsmiths Lane has remained shut and empty for the past seven years.

Now town councillors have agreed they need to come up with a plan of action - or face the prospect of losing £560,000 of contributions from housing developers which have been allocated to the renovation project.

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The Regal opened as a cinema in 1934 and showed films until it closed in 1973.

It was bought by the town council in 1975 and was used a community space until 2017 when it closed, and a scheme for a £3m new community centre in 2020 did not go ahead because of the pandemic.

Town councillors at the annual meeting earlier this month agreed to bring in a team of consultants to outline all the options because the developer funding needs to be spent by 2026.

There are a number of other community spaces in the town including the Corn Exchange, Centre 70, and Hithercroft Sports Park, plus community facilities run by churches. 

Town mayor Daniel Beauchamp said some money from housing developers would be used to hire the consultants so taxpayers did not need to fund the consultants' report. 

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He added: "There are different opinions in the community on whether we have enough community spaces - some people think we have a sufficient number of community spaces and some people think we don't have enough.

"The Regal is a complicated site and has shared access rights.

"Building costs have risen in recent years and £560,000 would only pay for refurbishing the building as it is.

"South Oxfordshire District Council is looking for truly affordable housing sites, so one possibility is flats above a community hall.

"We have now agreed to appoint a professional consultant to look in detail at all the options and provide the council with a proper summary."

An initial public consultation in 2018 showed there was demand for a new community centre in the town.

The town council said at the time it wanted a new hall on the site to be able to hold 400 people standing, or 220 seated.

It also planned to move the town council offices to the new building.

A newsletter said the new building would ‘provide modern, cost effective, office space which is easily accessible’ and the sale of the existing council office would allow investment in the new building.

Meeting rooms would also have been made available for public hire at the £3m centre.

Films are now shown at the Corn Exchange in the market place, a Grade II listed building.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

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