FUNDING for a former cinema in Blaenavon to reopen following a digital conversion worth nearly £80,000 has been given the green light.

The Arts Council of Wales have approved a package of funding that will enable the Blaenavon Workmen’s Hall cinema to undergo a conversion to a fully digital entertainment venue.

The cinema at the hall was closed in October 2013 when film hire became digitalised.

For the project, £58,641 will come from Arts Council of Wales via a Wales wide Lottery bid.

A further £14,547, of funding will come from the workmen’s hall own fund, and the Town Centre Partnership bid by Blaenavon Town Team will provide £5,000.

The cinema will be enabled to provide a much wider range of programming and plans are in place for a satellite link to enable ballet, opera and theatre productions to be added to the timetable.

It will also be enabled to connect modern console gaming equipment, allowing for wide screen action and fun for young people in the town.

The project manager for the digital cinema at the Blaenavon Workmen’s Hall, Gareth Davies, welcomed the news.

He said: “This is an important and welcome step for the hall, helping to provide a future for the venue, allowing for a wider range of programming, large screen gaming and arts and cultural programming.

“The hall has been the focal point of the town since the workers of the town paid their penny a week to help build it, I’m sure that the current hard working trustees and volunteers with welcome support from Torfaen council will be as excited as I am at the prospects for the future of this great Blaenavon institution.”

Work is due to start on the project soon with a specified end date of March 2015.