THE last picture show will soon be screened at one of only two remaining private cinemas in Stockport.
A planning application has been submitted to Stockport Council to convert the Savoy Cinema in Heaton Moor into a pub with a new frontage and external staircase.
Chinese businesswoman Lisa Fan, who has owned the Savoy for the past 12 years, admitted sharply falling attendances, particularly during the recent heatwave, and rising costs had forced her to sell up, resulting in a planning application to convert the building in to a pub.
"We really can't keep it going as a cinema any longer, although I really wanted to. The costs of running the Savoy have risen by 50 to 60 per cent over the past six months and the attendances have fallen drastically recently," she told the Stockport Express.
Mrs Fan said that last week there were only four people in for one performance and five for another. "There is no way we can survive with so few people attending," she added.
"To me, it is very sad. The very hot weather recently has made the situation worse and rising costs have not helped either. So there is no way we can keep going," she said.
Mrs Fan explained that costs such as fuel bills, particularly to run high voltage projectors, and insurance were constantly rising. And there were also problems with getting films from the distributors who sometimes expected her to hire one film for four weeks which was impossible in a cinema with just one screen.
She said the Savoy would close if, and when, planning permission was given to applicants the Barracuda Group Limited, for a pub on the cinema site, which the application states would create 35 full and part-time jobs.
She added its closure would leave only one independent cinema in the Stockport area, in Marple.
A council spokesman said the application would be considered by the Four Heatons Area Committee on September 13, if possible, or October 4, if not, after representations from the public about it have been received.
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what a shame as a boy i regularly went to the savoy on the moor i saw jaws,grease,and star wars there it will be the end of an era but obviously with the multiplex cinemas nowadays the one screen cinema is a thing of the past so along with the davenport the ritz the escaldo and the tatton another piece of my childhood is devoured by the changing trends of the future
This is terrible, the last thing heaton moor needs is to lose this cinema so that it can become a pub! please object to this planing application!
the application has beenmade by barracuda bar, is this the kind of bar we want in heaton moor?
the case officer at the council for this application is
Chris Smyton
Hygarth House,
103 Wellington Rd South, Stockport,
SK1 3TT
please lodge your objections
I am truely concerend about the removal of this local amenity. I regularly use the cinema with my friends and much prefer it to the other Multiplexes which are futher away. Heaton Moor does not need yet another Pub. The cinema is suited to people of every age unlike the current amount of bars and clubs that have recently filled the local area. The buliding could alternatively be used as something for the local comminuty. Such as a Thearte or Arts Center
I have many memories of the Savoy cinema and I do not wish for them to be drowned by beer! Don't turn it into a pub...PLEASE!
how can the council let this happen? there not even suggesting anything that the whole community could benifit from.Another bar...great..more drunks on the street.I only started going to the savoy in the past few years and me and my friends now go regulaly.What exactly will be left in the heatons for teenagers if the savoy is closed...not all of us want to hang around in the park or at this new "bar".Something has to be done. Save the Savoy!
As a regular attender of the savoy cinema I shall be greatly disapointed to see it close.
SAVE THE SAVOY. yeah.
Save the Savoy! please ask as many people as possible to write into the council and object to the planning application. the sale is only going to go ahead if the application is approved.
Please Mrs Fan reconsider, i'd join a monthly unlimited scheme if you have one, ??10 a month to save the Savoy, more than worht it!
rarrr!!! We want the savoy to stay a cinema! And when I say we, that is the royal we, meaning I want the savoy to stay a cinema.
But I suppose it can't be avoided if that few people go... :'(
I think they'll get a huge attendance for the last showings
I will be greatly disappointed to see this great landmark of Stockport leave. Especially to a pub, since there are plenty around the whole of the heatons already. I will try my very best to SAVE THE SAVOY!!
My family and I share happy memories of seeing big blockbusters at the savoy. On a rainy day it has always been just down the road to enjoy. The multiplexes are expensive and lack the general community atmosphere that the old savoy has. Great a new pub! Just across the road from a pub and down the road of several other pubs. Are the council trying to encourage us to drink? Or am I missing something?
me and my friends have been going to the savoy for 3 yrs (i've been goin longer) but as mates we haves been going every friday to watch a film if u close it down we will have nothin to do on a friday night please take this into account that the cinema is actually keeping youths off the streets
Why another bar!? There are loads in the same area! But there are NO cinemas in that area. The savoy is a good local Cinema! Don't close it down. I mean COME ON. Why would you do that! It's been there for ages..and it should still be there for atleast another ten years =] Keep it going!
oh yes i regularly use this cinema and if you get rid of it then it would be a great loss for the community and the children being brought up in stockport, i believe, would have a lower quality of life without the savoy cinema!!!
The main reason attendances are falling is because of when the owners banned some teenagers (including me) in February this year. There were around 15 of us who went every week - and that number was sometimes as much as 40 - to whatever film was on, but many have stopped going altogether (even though the ban was lifted) and most of us (including me) don't go to every film any more.
If the bid is accepted the area will be full of drunks from the pub and kids from the cinema with nothing to do but cause trouble. SOS! (Save Our Savoy)
As it's so hot and we are all on holiday, we don't go to the cinema as regularly. But sometimes there is like, 30 or 40 of us who go. What are we going to do on friday nights if they close the savoy?! It's the only thing for teenagers around here and they shouldn't be allowed to take it away from us.
SAVE THE SAVOY! I go to the savoy on a regular basis with my husband and its nearly a hobby of ours to go watch a film every monday night at the savoy, but recently not to many blockbuster movies have been showing and this has left us disaapointed the only way this problem can be solved is to show the latest hits at the top of the charts, will the owner please consider this thankyou
i think its no big thing the cinema is shuting down, yes i go with my friends from time to time but the people that run/work the place are arogant snobs that care for nothing but money..
they treat kids like they have come to the cinema to cause trouble.
as a few have done in the past.
shut it down..
i dont go there anymore because of the service for youths.
Seriously right, another pub? Please save the savoy, it's been the home of our Friday night entertainment for a year now, don't spoil that! There's a pub opposite, we really don't need another.
U CANT CLOSE THE SAVOY!! THE SAVOY IS WELL COOL!!! NO WAY!! :( I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED!!
Please save the savoy
i think its terrible . in fact terrible is too small a word. i hate pubs and all the trouble they bring. drunks, drugs etc.
i remember going to see willy wonka when i was five , dont let this be.save the savoy ,its all heaton moor has left
dont close down the savoy for bar we already have 2 bars on the moor! the savoy is a great place to meet people and watch a film !
Please campain for us!! We don't want the savoy to close! We'd have gone more often if we'd have known!!!!!!!!