£10m bid to reopen historic Wellington cinema

A new website has been set up, and it includes plans for a 400-seat auditorium and 100-seat cinema.

Campaigners want to see films screened once more at the Clifton, which is currently up for sale following Dunelm's decision to move out last year to a new location in Telford.

Campaigners say their first target is to raise £1m to buy the property, which opened as a cinema in 1937.

The website www.theclifton.org also includes details of the scheme for the Clifton site, in Bridge Road. As well as a cinema they aim to create a theatre and multi-purpose community arts centre with an 'art deco' style. The website reveals plans for two fully seated venues.

One would be in daily use with a 100-seat cinema, modelled on the Old Market Hall in Shrewsbury.

The second would be a performance space with 400 seats and a moveable stage.

Campaigners say they hope any original art deco features would be restored.

The scheme also includes three studio spaces for rehearsals, dance and exercise classes, film and TV production and experimental theatre.

There would also an arts-themed cafe bar with free Wi-Fi internet and exhibition areas for visual arts, including sculpture and workshops for arts and crafts.

The group will initially look for grants to cover feasibility studies so that detailed designs and cost estimates can be put together with a business plan. They are also looking for funds to buy the site with plans to launch a Community Benefit Society so people can buy shares.

A spokesman said: "The only way this project can succeed financially is by having people use it every day and for most of the day."

The campaigners are also appealing for volunteers to get on board, particularly people with skills to help get the project up and running such as architects, building surveyors, electrical engineers and building contractors.

Committee member Fiona Hunter said: "We do want people to be aware that although the site is in Wellington this is for the whole of Telford and beyond."

The Clifton opened in January 1937 screening a Shirley Temple film and shut in April 1983. Part of the site was reopened in 1987 as a Saverite supermarket, but closed again in 1988.

The site was converted to a laser gun entertainment complex in a £250,000 refit in 1993.