HORLEY'S cinema dream could soon become a reality.
Council officers have opened talks with providers – and if an agreement can be secured with one of them, a cinema will be built.
The move comes as a direct response to last month's public outcry at the news that the council had rejected proposals for a cinema on the Newman House site in Victoria Road, favouring a shopping and housing development instead.
Councillor Natalie Bramhall, executive member for regeneration at Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, said space is available for a cinema but stressed that an operator would have to be found first.
She said: "We are not turning our back on it. If we get cinema operators that say 'yes we are interested', then we will look at it.
"It is not that we don't want anyone to come to Horley because we do, but we have to have the confirmed interest.
"We are doing this because of the interest shown by Horley traders."
Shopkeepers have welcomed the news. Horley Association of Traders chairman Andy Parr said: "It's fantastic. I am glad they're listening.
"With all the new houses being built and the new people coming in, it puts us in a strong position for something like this."
Limes Avenue resident Mark Legg said: "A cinema would expand the cultural offering in the town.
"We used to have one and it would be nice for people to spend their 'leisure pound' in the town."
Cllr Bramhall would not be drawn on where a cinema could be built in the town, but she said that building one on the former Newman House site was never a realistic proposition.
She also rubbished suggestions that there had not been adequate consultation on what to do with the landmark site.
She said: "That is completely untrue. There is the Horley Regeneration Forum and they were consulted three times and it was agreed, so it is wrong of people to say they weren't consulted.
"It went through the executive committee and there were Horley councillors who attended, and not one of them raised issues.
"Now the plans have come in and people will make their views known."
A planning application was submitted last week for a multi-use shops and flats development at the Newman House site.