A COMMUNITY was yesterday told it has two months to prove a major cinema project can work - or risk losing it forever. A report which went before Denbighshire county council yesterday recommended the multi-million pound Scala plan for Prestatyn should be scrapped. But campaigners handed over a 5,000-name petition, collected in just one week, opposing the recommendation. They have now been given until November to prove their case to the council, a decision welcomed in Prestatyn last night. One campaigner said the decision would give objectors the impetus to keep on fighting for the Scala. The cinema on the town's High Street closed in December 2000 after the building was found to be unsafe. Plans were submitted in 2002 for a new cinema and arts centre on the same site, and finally approved by Denbigh-shire. But Denbighshire has since sought funding for the project, with £1.5m coming from an Assembly grant. However, a task group set up earlier this year concluded Denbighshire should drop the Scala project for funds to be used elsewhere. The report was considered behind closed doors yesterday, with councillors voting unanimously to give Prestatyn Town Council and residents until November to prove the project can work. Councillors also agreed the Ruthin Craft Centre redevelopment should go ahead as planned as long as it remained within budget. Objectors were made aware of the proposals to scrap the cinema after yesterday's report was leaked to the press earlier in the month. The 5,000-name petition was handed to Denbighshire chief executive Ian Miller just before yesterday's meeting. Sandra Pitt, chairman of Friends of the Scala, said: "People were queuing right down the pavement in Prestatyn to sign our petition. "It gives us time to work on the campaign. We have a battle to fight and now we have a few months to fight it. "We have got to up our campaign and keep at them to provide Prestatyn with a cinema. It's what the people of Prestatyn want." The meeting was overshadowed by claims by the task group's chairman, Councillor Paul Marfleet, that he was dismissed for recommending the Scala should be scrapped. Councillor Marfleet's claims of a potential funding "black hole" for the county were also dismissed by chief executive Ian Miller yesterday. | 
