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Cinema tops £1.5m windfall spending poll
A LANDSLIDE poll result shows that residents in Harborough overwhelmingly want Harborough District Council to spend part of a £1.5m windfall on bringing a cinema back to town.
The Mail reported last week that the council is due to receive a 1.5m cash boost as a result of transferring its council housing stock to a private firm.
The windfall was labelled as a once-in -a-lifetime opportunity by community groups who immediately called for urgent discussions as to how the money should best be spent.
Cinema campaigners say 500,000 would almost certainly clinch a deal to bring the movies back to Harborough for the first time in 30 years.
The Mail decided to launch an online vote on its website in a bid to gauge public opinion on the issue.
Nearly 600 people voted in the poll, which produced a resounding victory for the cinema campaigners with a 73 per cent vote share.
Helping to save the town’s under-threat Cottage Hospital building was runner-up with 21 per cent.
Other community uses came in third (three per cent) while support for the council’s ‘general fund’ drew just one per cent.
Council leader Alistair Swatridge, who last week said he would ‘listen to and consider the views of the public’, told the Mail this week: “At this stage, it is not our intention to use the money to shore up our financial situation. By law, the money must be put into our general fund.
“However, if circumstances allow, we should be able to put this money into an earmarked reserve fund that the council can use for the community, when and if the financial climate allows.”
Health campaigner Phil Knowles said: “Ninety-nine per cent of those who took the time to vote want consideration of some form of community schemes benefiting from this money.
“Regardless of the final use, one thing is clear – people want to see an open discussion with all options on the table. The council should agree to this.”
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Weather for Market Harborough
Thursday 17 May 2012
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