'Disappointment' as 'inevitable' housing development plans for former Kettering Gala Bingo hall revealed

Locals, Beccy Hurrell and Lindsey Atkins, had been behind the project to turn the former Gala Bingo site in High Street into a gig venue with a cafe, shops, work spaces and more.

But the disused venue’s out-of-town owners have now applied to North Northants Council (NNC) – the planning authority – to change the foyer of the building into part commercial and part residential use.

It had been hoped that the Art Deco cinema might gain funding and be kept as a community asset.

Beccy said: “I’m disappointed. There’s an air of inevitability about it. We were so, so close to getting funding, but anything investment-wise into the town centre would be good. The owners have to be able to make money – and that’s housing.”

If passed the full planning application (25/01128/FUL), made on behalf of Oxhey UK Investments Ltd, would see change of use of the ground floor of the former Bingo Hall to commercial use (C3) as well as part-commercial and part-residential use of the first floor with infill extensions of the second and third floors for residential use to create 14 flats at the 19 High Street address.

None of the flats proposed in the first phase of the redevelopment would be provided with parking spaces – a second phase would see conversion of the the former cinema auditorium concrete super structure retained and used to create additional residential space towards the rear of the site off Meadow Road.

The former bingo hall has been empty since 2018 when it closed as a bingo hall. Infamously it was used to grow drugs with one of the county’s biggest cannabis factories.

To save the building for public use, Kettering Town Centre Partnership designated the site as an Asset of Community Value, allowing community groups to bid to develop the building for community uses.

In the application submitted to NNC, the company said they were ‘sympathetic to community projects’ but no viable project had come forward.

It said: “While the current owners of the site are sympathetic to community projects, no viable project has come forward since the Bingo Hall closed in 2018 over seven years ago. These proposals are intended to preserve the building’s character and indeed make significant improvements to enhance the frontage of the building on the High Street.

"The site is economically marginal, even if the application proposals, that contain a significant residential floor space, were approved. However it is time to consider proposals that have a reasonable prospect of success and preserve the building for the future as well as assisting in the regeneration of the town centre.

It has been proposed the 14 residential flats for the development would comprise four one-bed one-person apartments, two studio flats, a one-bed two person

apartment, four two-bed three-person apartments and two two-bed four-person apartments.

The Kettering Regal Cinema opened in 1936, became a music venue until 1974 when it became a bingo all, until its closure in 2018.

Several applications have been made since the closure of the bingo hall to change the commercial use of the building but it is the first time residential use has been proposed.

Proposals include to ‘relight and strip back the building’ so it looks close to the Regal Cinema as possible and the preservation of the staircase on the north side of the building to be incorporated into one of the flats in a nod to its historic function.

The applicant concludes: “This proposal intends to reverse the deterioration of the former cinema building and to find a beneficial use. The proposals are intended to enhance the building frontage unlike the Bingo Hall use which detracted from it.”

For the full details go to North Northants Council's planning portal and search for 25/01128/FUL.