Kettering bingo hall transformation plan reaches Parliament as MP issues £2m funding plea to Government

A proposal to transform Kettering’s old bingo hall into a venue the town can be proud of again has been discussed in Parliament.

MP Philip Hollobone (Con) used a debate in Westminster Hall to plead with the Government to put £2m towards the project.

Kettering women Beccy Hurrell and Lindsey Atkins want to turn the former Gala Bingo site in High Street into a gig venue with a cafe, shops, work spaces and more, and will find out later this month if their bid for cash from the Community Ownership Fund has been successful.

And yesterday Mr Hollobone urged levelling-up minister Jacob Young to make sure the project won funding.

He said: “I genuinely struggle to imagine that the minister could have seen any bid among all those submitted to him in recent months that is of higher quality than the one that Beccy and Lindsey have prepared.

"I urge him, and plead with him; £2m is not a huge amount of money, compared with the billions that the Government spend every year, but putting £2m into the old Gala Bingo hall site in Kettering would be transformative for the area."

Beccy and Lindsey’s £5m plan for the building, through their community interest company, BHVA Axis Hub CIC, hopes to see it become a safe space where people can grow and flourish.

Their overall plans include a space for gigs and performances, a community cafe that turns into a bar in the evening, soft play, shops and spaces for workshops and businesses, as well as holding clinics to help people in areas including health, employment and law. They say the idea is that it would pay for itself with people paying to use the space.

Built on a former drapery store, the site was opened as Regal Cinema on Boxing Day in 1936 by Earl Spencer.

In 1947 it was taken over by Granada Theatres and hosted several concerts, including The Who and The Rolling Stones, before closing in 1974 and being taken over by Gala Bingo who closed it in 2018.

It made headlines around the world in June 2019 when police found a full house of 2,000 cannabis plants there, potentially worth almost £3m in value. The Kettering Town Centre Partnership (KTCP) then had it listed as an asset of community value, giving groups the chance to put together a bid if it ever went on the market.

In January its owners notified council bosses of their intention to sell it, with BHVA Axis Hub CIC applying to trigger the moratorium. And within a year Beccy and Lindsey, who recently triumphed at business awards, have formulated a phased plan which would see full potential realised by 2028-29.

Beccy said: “This time last year, this project wasn’t even in our sights. With some incredible support of local people and businesses we were able to submit the Community Ownership Fund bid in October and now it’s been discussed in Parliament!

"It’s been an incredible journey and we will find out at the end of the month if we have been successful.”

Lindsey added: “For what started as an ‘imagine if’ and ‘could we do this’ conversation, then getting to explore the building for the first time and to now have our mission and vision discussed in Westminster is amazing!

"Whatever the outcome this isn’t a one and done situation – we will keep going until we achieve this for the town and wider communities.”

Mr Hollobone told the Westminster Hall debate that Kettering is a priority for levelling-up interventions, that KGH has shown an interest in outsourcing space in the new venue and that Beccy and Lindsey are ‘quite simply remarkable individuals’.

He said: "I fully support, 100 per cent, their excellent community ownership fund bid for £2m to revive for community use the former Gala Bingo hall building, which is located right at the heart of Kettering town centre.

"If the bid is successful, it would be transformative for the heart of Kettering.”

In reply, levelling-up minister Mr Young did not promise the project would win funding but wished Beccy and Lindsey the best of luck.

He said: “In the words of the Rolling Stones, I tell my hon. friend ‘you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find you get what you need’.

“I hope that that response gives him some satisfaction.”