Cinema plan for Rotherham

ROTHERHAM Council is looking to push ahead with plans for a cinema and theatre to help regenerate the town centre.

Senior councillors are set to confirm Forge Island as the authority’s preferred site for the new complex next week.

The area is currently home to a Tesco store but the supermarket is set to move to a new site at the end of next year.

Councillors are considering working with a developer to turn the area into a leisure and retail park anchored by a cinema or handing over part or all of the site to an independent operator to finance the development.

It will cost the authority £1.5m to exercise its option over the Forge Island site with the possibility that work could begin in the middle of 2014.

A report to councillors suggests there are already three developers interested in working with the council on the scheme.