An admission over the preferred use of an empty site was making our headlines ten years ago this week.

The council has said it does ideally want a new cinema to be built on Walthamstow's Arcade site, despite opposition from campaigners.

The admission comes after the revelation that the authority was considering proposals for a multiplex to be built on the empty site in Hoe Street.

Campaigners from the McGuffin Film Society want the nearby historic EMD to be reopened as a cinema instead, and fear that a new rival facility on the Arcade site will scupper such plans.

Two new proposals over what to do with the land - which has been empty for almost a decade following the collapse of various other development schemes - have not been made public by the council.

But last week the authority published the minutes of councillors discussing confidential plans on its website, which led to some aspects being revealed.

However despite a council officer being quoted in the minutes as saying that a new cinema "is a condition of the development agreement", the authority has now said this is not the case.

Council leader Cllr Chris Robbins said: "We are keen to develop the Arcade site and our aspiration is for there to be a cinema at this very important location in our town centre.

"However while we expressed the wish that bidders to become our preferred partners included a cinema in their plans, it was not a condition of the development agreement.

"The council has a responsibility to get the very best possible deal for residents regarding this development and with this in mind we are not prepared to release financial data relating to the Arcade site and future developments there at this stage."

In December the council announced it was set to work with Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA) on a new mixed-use scheme for the Arcade site.

A planning application for the development is currently being worked on and is expected to be submitted later this year.

Only one other housing association submitted a proposal for the site along with ISHA.

Meanwhile the authority is currently considering an application by the EMD's current owners, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), to convert the building into a place of worship.