A NEAR fatal blow has been dealt to a campaign to reopen the David Lean Cinema – just days after campaigners held their first public meeting.

About 100 people attended the meeting last month, to support a bid to reopen the 60-seat art-house cinema at the Clocktower.

But councillor Sara Bashford, the council's cabinet member for culture, has told the Advertiser: "The campaigners are a group of people who are getting themselves worked up about a decision which has already been taken, has been implemented and won't be changed."

Instead, all the cinema's projection equipment has already been moved and installed in the Ashcroft Theatre, at Fairfield Halls.

Ms Bashford is planning to meet soon with Simon Thomsett, Fairfield's chief executive, to discuss programming for the new cinema.

She said: "I understand where the campaigners are coming from and have understood that from day one, but the David Lean Cinema is not a core service."