Members will hear fate of Wymondham's Regal cinema

A relocation scheme that could result in the demolition of the old Wymondham Regal cinema is set to move a step closer this weekend.

On Sunday, members of Wymondham and District Ex-servicemen's Club will be given an update on the search for new premises by property consultancy company Bastin and Steward. The firm was tasked to prepare an exit strategy after it emerged that it would cost up to �700,000 to refurbish the existing premises, now nearing the end of its lifespan, making it an unviable proposition.

The building started out as a cinema, and nostalgic film shows are still regularly held there which have attracted many leading movie stars of bygone eras.

But a call for the club to reconsider selling the site for redevelopment - made by former management committee members Bob Howes and Jimmy Hurrell, has failed to win support. The duo called a meeting last December inviting counter proposals to enable the building to be retained.

However, club secretary Steve Slater said none have been submitted for consideration at their annual meeting on Sunday.

He said: 'I would like to make it clear that I as secretary, and the committee as a whole, have no wish to leave our current location but we have to face the facts as they are, not as we would wish them to be.

'Despite the protestations of previous members of the club, the unofficial meeting they called and reports they submitted to the media, if there was sufficient support for their point of view I would have expected to receive a proposal to consider staying at the current location.'

Mr Slater would not divulge any details of Bastin and Steward's report in advance of the meeting, but hoped to find premises in the locality.

And although he described the cinema room as a 'fantastic facility', he explained that the first objective was look to the needs of their members.

'What we have here we don't necessarily have to replicate to have a functional club. It could be an existing building that we could convert or a bespoke building by a developer,' he explained.