It was obvious from day one that the idea of a cinema in Deal was a non starter (it had last been a cinema in 1963 - SIXTY years ago).
Why the Hell DDC owned a derelict Bingo Hall is buried in the mists of time and Wikipedia but the old adage of 'location, location, location' suggested it could be sold for millions by the Council of which I was a member.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent_Cinema,_Deal
Immediately a group of local harridans having finished with boycotting South African and having Sapphic experiences at Greenham Common - and before costing DHB a fortune to Save the Goodwin Sands or Saving the old slag heap at Betteshnager Park from surfers - set up the Save the Regent group and started lobbying for a 'much needed cinema' in Deal.
Whilst I was quite happy to say to them 'Don't be so f**king stupid' the Labour Opposition jumped on the passing bandwagon and a number of other Deal Councillors joined them as they thought it was a vote winner (though it was actually MY vote that went up at the next election).
Some idiot in DDC legal department (hopefully the one we had to let go of after I exposed their incompetence over Deal Pier) came up with the brilliant idea of putting a restriction in the sale of the site that it could only be developed IF the development contained a 'cinema'.
At a Scruitiny Meeting I asked one of the Directors of DDC (retiring this year on his guaranteed pension after years at +£100k) what would happen if the site ended up a huge housing development after most of our present councilors were gone and he replied that 'DDC would seek an 'uplift' on the price'.
I believe my reply was 'Yeah, right Roger, course it will!'.
DDC's move. Don't hold your breath.
(I believe at Full Council I was the only one to vote against the sale)