BRYNMAWR’S Market Hall Cinema has been given the go-ahead to add a second screen to its historic venue reports DAVID LYNCH.

Planning permission for a 130-seat second screen at the venue on Brynmawr’s Market Square has been approved, adding to the current 220-seat screen that the cinema already has.

Plans for the new screen include state of the art digital projection and sound, super-luxury comfy chairs, as well as restoring the interior space to the Art Deco style of its heyday in the 1930s.

It will fill the room behind the current cinema screen, formerly occupied by Brynmawr’s library, which has moved across the street to the Learning Action Centre.

The cinema, which is the oldest in Wales, is managed by a local community group, and last year was given the UK Cinema of the Year award 2014.

Andrea Durban of the community group said, “We want to make a new auditorium to rival our magnificent current screen.You don’t come to Wales’ oldest cinema and expect to sit in the sort of boring black boxes you see everywhere else. We have a glorious tradition to uphold!”

Peter Watkins-Hughes, a film director who helps run the cinema, praised the warm welcome the development has received from local government.

He said, “”We have appointed a small army of contractors and engineering consultants to ensure we get every detail of this right, and have also been working closely with Blaenau Gwent Council and Brynmawr Town Council on this historic project. Everyone has been very helpful, I think they all love this Welsh national treasure as much as we do!”

Bernard Snowball, who books films for the venue, said, “This is the most important and significant change in the history of the place.”

He added, “We’ve got something rather special in the pipeline. We can’t wait to reveal what the first film will be. All I can say is, it’s a biggie!”

Construction work at the Market Hall is due to begin in February 2016, and is estimated to take approximately three months.