CAMPAIGNERS fighting to keep the EMD building as a cinema have welcomed the news that the Arcade site development will be delayed.

A controversial council plan to bail out the redevelopment of the Arcade site with public funds will now be delayed as it will break European Union rules if implemented, it has now been realised.

The contract for the £35m scheme, which is set to include a cinema, swimming pool, shops and homes, needs to be put out to tender.

The McGuffin Film Society believes the latest Arcade site delay will weaken the case for the EMD building, in Hoe Street, being turned into a church by owners Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG).

Bill Hodgson, McGuffin Film Society chairman, said: "There is now no prospect of a multiplex development going ahead at any time in the foreseeable future so there is no case for allowing changes to the EMD as it remains the borough's only viable cinema building.

"Councillors are lurching from crisis to crisis and now they are in such a deep hole it is really time to stop digging".

Mr Hodgson said a competitive bidder for the Arcade project would not see a multiplex as an attractive option because it makes "no sense" to build a cinema next to the existing EMD.

The Society hopes UCKG's plans, which include restoring the EMD's main auditorium for use as church services, will be scrapped and that instead UCKG's church plan will be incorporated into the Arcade site development.