Lunchtime Meeting - 12.45pm - Speaker The Regal Project - An Opportunity For Oswestry

Long ceased operating as a cinema, the space formerly occupied by The Regal Cinema and the BeWise shop fronting onto Cross Street, has been stripped of its seating and most signs of its previous life whilst hosting various charity shops over recent years.

Now empty once again, the Regal Project Committee are stepping up their efforts to utilise the space for the benefit of the community of Oswestry.

With financial support from the Bright Ideas Fund, the group have recently been able to meet with Adrian Ashton, a recognised, approved, and accredited provider of advice, consultancy, and training to various organisations and groups from local to national levels, to develop their ideas.

The Project Committee held their first meeting of 2020 a week or so ago continuing planning and meeting to develop their ideas.

Below is what they say on their website.  You can also follow them on Facebook.

October 2019

Dear Oswestry Community,

Since our last update we have some exciting developments - which we hope you can get involved with!

Funding
We have now received a grant of £13,000 from the Bright Ideas fund to further the Regal Project.  This grant will be used to assess the feasibility of using the Regal buildings for the project through an architect’s and a surveyor’s assessment. 

A shop window
For the Regal Project to truly drive forward, we will need to boost our visibility to gain support.  To that end we propose to open a shop front in Oswestry to house our plans. While we raise money to purchase The Regal buildings we would like to be available for Oswestry residents to see plans and ask questions about the project. 

This shop should also accommodate some of the activities we want to see in the Regal. We hope to offer studio and office space, a bite to eat, exhibition/sales spaces and mainly a place to meet and talk. Obviously this comes with cost implications - some of which has been covered by the Bright Ideas grant - but not all of it.

This is where you come in... are you:

An artist who needs a small studio or shared studio space?
An artist who wants to display work on a semi-permanent basis?
A small business in need of desk or meeting space?
A local attraction or business looking to promote your events?

This can be done for a participatory fee - without committing to a long term lease.  Running costs would be shared between us.

Committee
The committee continues to meet on a weekly basis.  Over the past couple of weeks we have been pleased to welcome two new members to the Regal Project committee.  Richard Banks and Paul Newman are both part of the Oswestry Community and we welcome their skills and expertise to the group.

Communication
Please feel free to contact us on communityoswestry@gmail.com (not working January 16th 2020).

We look forward to your comments!

The Regal Project Committee
Ingrid, Bob, Sarah, Jo, Helen, David, Paul and Richard