Yeah, it was apparent that they didn't cater for the numbers who turned up - where I was sitting was clearly supposed to be in the family/children's area at the back, which, as you say, was not covered by the loudspeakers, and they had tables set up cabaret style throughout the room, rather than having a meeting section at the front.
I did hear some of what was said, including what I thought was 7000 signature petition (so perhaps I didn't even hear that right!), and the number who have objected, of which I am one.
However, I was genuinely expecting to hear both sides of the debate, as it was advertised as a public meeting, so I was hoping that someone from the church would be there to explain their plans, and to answer questions about why they think there is a need for another church/community centre. Most churches in this country don't have much money, so there must be a good reason why they think it will be a success.
Once I was there, it was obvious that it was a campaign meeting, and that the only speakers who those in support of said campaign. It's not really all that helpful that Croydon Council support it, since the building is not in Croydon, and it is easy for them to support the campaign, for the same reason - they haven't got to do anything!
Having said all that, I genuinely want to see a cinema in Crystal Palace, for personal reasons, and I genuinely believe that a cinema would help to regenerate the Church Road bit of Crystal Palace, so I wish the campaign well.
They catered for 500+, and at the start of the meeting there were maybe 200-300 in the ballroom, but as it turned out around 1,000 turned up, many after the meeting time start (so difficult then to move the hotel's layout). This was the biggest venue available in the vicinity, and was paid for in cash to the hotel out of campaigners pockets. i.e. people like us. This was not a council public meeting in some council facility.
The church was invited to attend and speak by the meeting organisers. They sent two people along, who refused to speak. They were again invited to speak by the chair of the meeting, during the meeting, but said no. The chair of the meeting did express her regret at this, from the stage.
Croydon - most of the Triangle is Croydon, and in Croydon's future plans this is a District Centre in major need of regeneration. At least this demonstrates *one* of the five boroughs is interested in the area - most of the rest just ignore it. Croydon are trying to address regen for CP and to get all the 5 of them around the table.
Bromley - i don't think anyone knew the leader was turning up. He seemed to be a little upset. And he didn't make a statement in support of the cinema. I don't think we knew about Malcolm Wicks either.
Most of those politicians that did speak in support were ward councillors who have been involved in the cinema campaign themselves for months, so not surprising that they wished to speak. So did members of the public. And so did the vicar etc.
This church is wealthy - tens of millions in the bank, quite a few million 'profit' every year. Their 'services' are something akin to investment seminars (lots of words like wealth, investments, assets etc thrown around), and people seem to hand over cheques for hundreds or thousands of pounds at a time. There is a lot of big-time tithing. And then of course they get serious cheques back from HMRC for all that tithing (give as you earn) amounting to seven figures per year. They also recently got £13 million 'compensation' from the LDA for leaving a previous building. They are wealthy enough to have had serious plans to build a £70 million church seating 8,000 (and had already spend £3 million on advisers for this) but their plans were scuppered this year. So I guess they are looking for seats for all those thousands of backsides.
The church has a very similar operation in Hoe Street Walthamstow, though that cinema is slightly smaller than CP (about 150-200 fewer places). Hoe Street gets around 6,000 people turning up on Sundays, mostly in their cars (the car modal share for KICC Hoe Street is 62-72% according to the transport experts, and that's for a place with good transport and a tube line). That still leaves many thousands of London and SE members outside (18,000 members in London).
So if people think a 450-seater cinema (after conversion) with staggered screenings/attendances would be a problem for CP, imagine what a problem this *regional* church would be in this 1,150 seater place, with 6 back-to-back services per day (which is what happens at Hoe Street). By the way, car use for Picture House customers apparently 15% - most walk or use public transport. People don't travel 20-60 miles to go to the cinema.
And it is regional. It's to be their SE UK HQ, and there will be people coming in from across Kent, Surrey, Sussex, SW London etc, mostly in their cars (especially given dreadful public transport on Sundays). There are also likely to be '48-hr Miracle' events, which somewhat resemble a rave, but which require no licensing. And so on.
On bids and prices, the bids were apparently sealed but City Screen (Picture Palace) were not allowed to examine/survey building, the excuse from Gala being that they had not told employees the bingo was shutting down (i.e. the building was sold from under them). As yet, it's unclear whether the church were permitted to survey, as we're hearing contradictory claims.
On UCKG and KICC: they are essentially the same kind of outfit, 'prosperity gospel' is their creed (the so-called 'greed is good' or the overlapping 'word of faith' creed), which is a rather odd offshoot of pentecostalism.
The Bishop of Croydon on this creed and this church: "I guess the irony is lost on the Guardian, but its feature today on the Kingsway International Christian Centre (in Walthamstow, London) puts into sharp relief the shocking surprise of Easter over against the shocking heresy of some contemporary Pentecostal teaching."
One church (UCKG) just has more money and more lawyers and experience than the other, and perhaps has been involved in bigger league 'financial mismanagement' than the other too (according to the Brazilian government). KICC is very big on the televangelism lark, with extensive international coverage via Hotbird satellite. The KICC motto is 'taking territories'.
There are already 18 churches in the immediate area of the Triangle, quite a few of them evangelical or pentecostal, but only one D2 (cinema/bingo) building. On each occasion this building has been sold it has been sold while fully operating as a D2 (ie it's never been shut or redundant). The only people who have shut it are the church.
A number of the local churches are not exactly supporting the KICC proposal - see the join statement by the four churches read out by one of the vicars at the meeting, available on the Facebook cinema campaign website on video.
And finally, on screens in S London (top of my head/memory):
UK average screens per 100,000: 5.4
London average screens per 100,000: 6.9
South London average screens per 100,000: 1.8
(based on UK film Council and LDA data)
Yes, in S London we have far fewer screens than large swathes of the country.
