Pontardawe Arts Centre cinema costs more than double to £1.3m

Council leaders have agreed to pay double what was expected for an arts centre's cinema, which will top £1m.

The scheme at Pontardawe Arts Centre, Neath Port Talbot, was said by one councillor to be "pivotal" to the area.

Neath Port Talbot councillors agreed to pay £500,000 in 2019 based on an estimate for the Arts Council of Wales (ACW), which has pledged £300,000.

However, a senior council officer said his team had expected it to cost more as some factors were not considered.

The building originally opened in 1909 as the Pontardawe Public Hall and Institute, paid for by workers through a subscription scheme. 

After falling into neglect, it reopened as an arts centre in 1996, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Architects were appointed to develop a new 70-seat cinema in September 2020 and have now requested an extra £600,000 to complete the work, to include ground flood refurbishments.

On the question of the estimates, ACW said it commissioned and funded an initial concept design brief that provided "early indicative costs for the redevelopment project", with the expectation that a business plan and full feasibility study would follow.

A spokesman said: "As has been pointed out, the scheme became a more technical project than was first anticipated and the feasibility study highlighted the additional costs of the remodelled project."

Andrew Thomas, the council's director of education, leisure and lifelong learning, told cabinet members the latest estimated bill was now just over £1.3m, plus £100,000 earmarked for contingencies.

"The cost is far in excess of what we thought the original budget would be," he said.

"It isn't just to deliver the cinema - there is some remodelling work of the arts centre involved in this scheme to make the cinema better from a customer flow point of view.

"Our technical boys always thought that the budget cost was never enough, but we did have to toe the line from the Arts Council [of Wales] if we were to secure their funding."

Paul Dorrell, the council's project director, said a "basic feasibility study" on behalf of ACW had left out a lot of factors such as a breakout space, ancillary toilets, work to the external plantyard and demolition of existing services.

Sandra Miller, from the ruling Labour group, said: "I know it's more costly, however, what we're going to get out of it is going to be a project that is pivotal to the area and future valley activity.

"Having frequented the arts centre previously, it was never suitable for disabled people etc, so we're seeing some real improvements here and hopefully it will go from strength to strength."