FOLLOWING Blaenau Gwent Council’s decision to withdraw funding from Brynmawr’s Market Hall Cinema in March, it is hoped the cinema will be handed over to a local community group.

Council officers say they have been working closely with members of the community to determine an alternative method of delivery to retain the cinema.

The council has made a commitment to maintain the operation of the cinema up until May 2013, after which it is hoped the Market Hall Cinema Trust will take over.

In the meantime a council spokeswoman has said the council is “committed to exploring alternative methods of delivery for the cinema, in order to sustain the longest-serving single-screen cinema inWales”.

Discussions have taken place between the council and members of the Save Our Cinema Group, and more recently the Market Hall Cinema Trust, in relation to seeking an alternative model of service delivery for the cinema.

They are now working in partnership on a possible Community Asset Transfer of the Market Hall Cinema, which if successful will result in newownership of the cinema.

In the short term there will be a period of closure of the cinema for essential maintenance works from tomorrow, and it is hoped the cinema will reopen under new ownership from the second week of June.

In March angry protesters walked out of a Blaenau Gwent Council meeting in disgust after councillors voted in favour of approving the 2013/14 budget which would close the Market Hall Cinema.

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

At the time, council leader Hedley McCarthy said: “We do not want to close anything, but we are trying to recover from a £4 million shortfall in funding.

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