South Yorkshire nightclub operator The Brook Group, the owner, has filed a full planning application for the grade two listed art deco Hunter Street building.

The plans, prepared by the renowned Donald Insall Associates group, which has been responsible for changes to many of the historic buildings in Chester over many decades, are for a mixed used development including retail outlets, a restaurant, bar, foyer, studio and a cinema.

The proposals involve partly demolishing what city MP Christine Russell calls an "icon" building, and extending and converting it.

Envisaged on the ground floor are three leisure and retail units, a piano bar and a cinema facility. On the first floor there be a piano bar, an entertainment venue and another cinema area. On the second floor it is envisaged there will be an entertainment venue and a cafe/restaurant.

Overall floor space proportions of floor space are: piano bar/entertainment venue 1,103 sq metres (one linked unit on three floors), cinema 772, leisure/retail units 668, café/restaurant (also linked) 42.

There are some technical problems with the submission but it is expected to be validated by city council planning officers by the end of the week.

Mrs Russell has led a long-standing campaign to keep the Odeon operating as a cinema to help stop the city centre becoming a "cultural desert". She is now calling for town hall leaders to head talks leading to the creation of a multi-purpose arts venue in the Odeon building.

Her campaign, which has now been taken on board by Chester Civic Trust and other committed activists, was given a major boost when there was standing room only at a public meeting at St Mary's Centre last September when an estimated 250 movie lovers turned out to show their backing for a bid to 'Save the Odeon'.

Also at the meeting was Gary Hunt, managing director of Barnsley-based The Brook Group, who promised to try to work with the audience to produce an outcome for the Odeon that was suitable to everyone.

The campaigners also received positive comments from Charlie Seward, now city council director of development, who said the local authority had designated that part of the city centre as the cultural quarter.

He said the Odeon was designated as a public building for community use and for any change of use of the Odeon building to be allowed, replacement facilities of the same value would have to be provided.

The meeting was also told that under new planning laws cinemas and theatres were classified differently to nightclubs and bingo halls. The Odeon was classed as a cinema in the local plan and could not be replaced with a nightclub or other such facility without full a planning permission and change of use consent.

Mrs Russell, a former Chester Film Society chairman, said: "Cinema has a unique place in the hearts of people of all ages and from all backgrounds."

Mrs Russell told the audience: "Cinema is not dying and it is the most popular leisure pursuit for the under-25s, more so than nightclubs.

"We are all concerned about young people binge-drinking and we have to provide alternative leisure pursuits for young people and the not-so-young.

"Official statistics show that for every £1 spent in a cinema, £2 is spent in the local economy.

"In short, cinema is good for you."

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