King's Lynn Corn Exchange cinema cost West Norfolk Council £750,000 more than originally planned

West Norfolk Council spent £750,000 more constructing Lynn’s Corn Exchange cinema than originally planned.

An evaluation report from the council’s corporate performance panel revealed that £1,894,500 was spent on the project - considerably more than the £1,142,910 first set out at a cabinet meeting in November 2018.

The decision to build two 60-seat cinema screens was made based on trends which saw attendances rising nationally prior to the pandemic, with construction beginning in January 2020 and expected to last for three months.

However, work at the Tuesday Market Place venue was put on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions - and even when it opened in September of that year, it had just six weeks before being closed again until May 2021.

The new report, which will be discussed at a council meeting on Monday, found that the timing of the pandemic had a “major impact on the cinema” due to an inability to fully launch and promote it.

The areas in which overspend was particularly prominent are outlined in the documents - with £100,000 extra being spent on the Corn Exchange’s roof than first planned.

General construction cost £113,455 more than anticipated, while a ‘toilet additional cost’ resulted in a further£195,000 being forked out.

At the start of the project, it was deemed “a high-risk investment compared to much of the council’s investment” - but it was hoped that ticket sales would help to deliver a higher rate of return.

With this in mind, a number of net profit forecasts were drawn up, with hopes that by the cinema’s fifth year, it would be generating £250,582.

However, due to the pandemic and “changes to the film industry, how films are distributed and streamed”, new estimates are being drawn up for Alive West Norfolk’s board of directors to review.

Under a ‘Lessons Learnt’ section, the panel says that if a project’s cost increases, revised profit and loss statements should be created to establish any potential impact.

The report adds: “The success of the cinema in the future will largely depend on the quality of the offer, the environment, and the ability to show films as soon as they are released.

“Feedback on the cinema has been excellent.

“The council and Alive West Norfolk board should now look to the future to plan how to capitalise on the facility to maximise revenue and build the cinema to be a natural choice for cinemagoers in the future.”