ANGRY protesters walked out in disgust from a Blaenau Gwent Council meeting yesterday after councillors voted in favour of approving the 2013/14 budget which will close the Market Hall Cinema in Brynmawr.

Protesters shouted "Shame, shame!" as all but six councillors voted in favour of the move, which will also introduce a 4.6 per cent council tax increase to the county borough.

Cllrs John Williams, John Mason, Kevin Brown, Garth Collier, Denzil Hancock and former council leader John Hopkins all voted against the budget, and Cllrs Hopkins and Brown both walked out of the meeting.

Members of the ‘Save our Cinema’ group and Brynmawr Town Council stood outside the building before the meeting brandishing placards and banners protesting the closure.

During the meeting around 50 of the protesters filled the public gallery and watched as the council voted to pass the proposed budget.

Afterwards some upset protestors shouted "Tories" and "Call yourself Labour?" as Labour councillors left the meeting at Ebbw Vale Civic Centre.

SOC member and co-founder Ken Young said: "We’d been told it was going to close anyway, so it wasn’t a massive surprise.

"Mainly we were here to try and shame them. We were hoping they would delay the decision so we could have time to put together a business plan for the running of the cinema.

"But if we’re paying 4.6 per cent council tax where is all the money going?"

Cllr Hopkins said: "It’s a matter of principle. I think the councillors who made the decision today are not considering the views of the people they represent. They have been dogmatic, dictatorial and it’s not good enough."

A report by the chief finance officer said the council tax rise was needed to counter the anticipated impact of the council tax reduction scheme.

Council Leader Hedley McCarthy said: "We simply cannot afford to run the cinema and make the improvements it needs when we are cutting critical services.

"We do not want to close anything, but we are trying to recover from a £4m shortfall in funding.

"We have already had a couple of interested parties express interest. We do not see this as the closure of the cinema, we see it as the start of keeping it open."