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Council steps in to secure Odeon
COUNCIL chiefs have stepped in to make a run-down cinema safe after reports that pieces of the stonework were dropping off.
Wooden hoardings have been put up around sections of the old Odeon Cinema, on Raby Road, Hartlepool, in a bid to protect the public.
Hartlepool Borough Council stepped in after receiving reports that parts of the masonry were falling off.
Regeneration officials have made a fresh appeal to the building's owners to renovate it and bring it back into use.
The Odeon, which has stood empty for several years, has been dubbed a "grot spot" and was on Mayor Stuart Drummond's hit list of sites that needed sorting out.
It has also featured in the Mail's Spot the Grots campaign.
A spokesman for Hartlepool council said: "We have put wooden hoardings up around part of the former Odeon building as a safety measure because we had received reports of small pieces of masonry falling from it.
"We have contacted the owner of the building and asked them to carry out the necessary repairs.
"We are also doing everything we can to encourage them to renovate the building and bring it back into an appropriate use."
The Grade II listed building opened to the public as the Majestic Cinema in 1936.
It later became the Odeon and closed as a cinema on October 24, 1981.
In the mid 90s it was given a new lease of life when it reopened as Caesar's Palace nightclub and Jo Pools bar.
However, it has stood empty since that closed in around 2002.
Hartlepool New Deal for Communities has previously worked with the building's owners in a bid to find an alternative use for it.
A feasibility study carried out in 2007 found it was best suited for residential use or a complete redevelopment of the site.
No-one at Capanac Leisure, which owns the building, could be contacted for comment.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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