Inside Croydon has come in to possession of a revealing email sent to staff at the David Lean Cinema late on Thursday about the venue’s future. Or lack of one.

Sara “Book Token” Bashford had earlier this week told one local newspaper that “The cinema will not close.”

Now the director of Croydon Council’s culture department has contradicted Bashford in writing.

The doors of the David Lean Cinema will finally close last this month

In her email to staff, Pauline Scott-Garrett outlined that Bashford’s suggestion that the David Lean Cinema might move to the Fairfield Halls has not been agreed, it is unfunded and is unlikely to amount to really saving the much-loved arthouse venue. So it really does look like “Book Token” Bashford was talking nonsense. No change there then…

Here’s the email:

Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:37:14 +0100
Subject: The David Lean Cinema and the Croydon Guardian

Dear colleague

I wanted to give you some clarification on the story carried by the Croydon Guardian this week in respect of the David Lean Cinema.

At the Council meeting on Monday evening, Councillor Bashford outlined some proposals in respect of cinema provision at the Fairfield Halls. The first thing to stress is that these proposals are still in their infancy. They have not, for example, been formally presented to the Fairfield Board which runs Fairfield Halls as an independent charitable trust. The proposal is likely to involve a re-branding of Fairfield’s existing film programme with some expansion of the programme to enable continuity of the David Lean Cinema brand. As yet there is no timetable set as to when that brand transfer might take place. It is not envisaged that there will be any specific Council funding for the Fairfield film programme.

There is no provision in the budget beyond April of this year for the David Lean Cinema, and that position is unchanged as a result of the Councillor’s statement.

You are welcome to raise questions about this matter and how it may affect you, during the consultation process, and I will do my best to keep you informed.

Kind regards

Pauline Scott-Garrett

Director Culture

So, back to Roy Chubby Brown then…