TESTING has started at Royston’s new community cinema.

Town centre manager Geraint Burnell told Royston Town Council’s annual town meeting, held on Tuesday night, that a full test programme had been run at the cinema last Friday.

The cinema will be housed in the town hall, and is being funded jointly by the Royston First business improvement district company and Royston Town Council.

Mr Burnell, who works for Royston First, said: “We ran our first full film with trailers and sound, and it worked ok. There are still one or two things which need to be resolved but that’s normal for a scheme of this size.”

The team behind the project are currently in negotiations with the UK’s film distributors to ensure the cinema can show all the latest releases.

“We’ve got one of the major nine distributors signed up,” said Mr Burnell.

“It will take time because we’re at the bottom of the heap as far as they’re concerned, but we’re getting there.”

An opening date for the cinema, which will be called the Royston Picture Palace, has yet to be announced.