PLANS for a community cinema in Dunfermline are still on the menu with a study set to be carried out in the new year.

The Dunfermline Regeneration Trust previously had hopes to reopen the old Robins Cinema as a community project however the idea was shelved when a similar plan for a facility at the Alhambra Theatre was aired.

Following the coronavirus lockdown, this proposal was also scrapped but the regeneration trust's chairman, Derek Glen, revealed to the Press that the idea of reopening the old picture house in East Port – which will again go up for auction later this month – is still one they may look at.

"From the Regeneration Trust perspective, we are still interested in it," he said. "We have got a plan to put a feasibility study together in order to investigate bringing a community cinema into the city centre somewhere.

"If that was to be in the Robins Cinema, that would be a long term plan because clearly a lot of investment is required over several years to bring that to full fruition.

"Equally, we have got other empty buildings in the city centre that maybe suitable to do that in a shorter time frame."

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The historic Robins Cinema building first opened up in 1913 and was a unique 'reverse cinema' with the audience entering from the side of the screen.

It became an independent in 1982 as 'The Orient Express' and was then acquired by Robins Cinemas Ltd and reopened in October 1992, after a short closure, with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

The opening of the Odeon complex on the Fife Leisure Park in 2000 spelled the beginning of the end for the Robins and it shut its doors in the same year.

The building controversially opened back up in 2007 as lap-dancing club Private Eyes. At the time, the then-local MP, Willie Rennie, called it "sleazy, so-called entertainment" and told the club to "pack up and go home".

Instead the owner invited him to visit the club. Private Eyes closed in 2011 and the building took on a new guise as Club Tropicana, an eighties-themed bar which also later shut.

Mr Glen said it was hoped the feasibility study could get underway in the early part of 2025 "We have got some funding committed from Architectural Heritage Scotland for that and we have applied for funding from the local area committee through the community recovery fund and we are expecting a decision on that in February," he added.

"One of the things we are looking at is how it might happen. It maybe to develop it for the community by creating a community or club of cinema goers and work up to having a fixed home further down the line.

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"People clearly look at and have fond memories of how the city centre was once as the main place for people to do all their shopping before they had out of town places and big supermarket shops.

"It is unlikely it is going to revert to how that was but we need to find new innovative ways to give people a reason to come in. They can then enjoy some of the other shops, cafes and places that are thriving here."

The Robins Cinema building will go back under the hammer on November 28 at an opening bid price of £192,000 having already been at auction in October at a starting price of £195,000 and in September for £225,000.

Future Property Auctions, who are handling the sale, previously told the Press that they are still confident that a buyer can be found.

Operations Director, Darryl Cormack, explained: "In the past, we would have had a live auction which we used to hold every six weeks. We would give people three auctions before a serious conversation about prices."