A London MP today claimed poor people were being “written out of the script” after revealing that swathes of the capital are not served by a cinema.
Labour’s David Lammy undertook research which found 27 out of the 73 constituencies in London had no cinema.
The MP for Tottenham said many of the areas affected were among the least affluent, adding: “It’s as if poor people have been written out of the script when it comes to cinema in London.
“It’s unacceptable that there are still so many constituencies across the capital where people are expected to travel into the centre to access cinema.
“The British Film Institute and the Arts Council that control funding for arts and film have to do much more to correct this. When you look at how much the Arts Council spends on opera — surely a small slice of that redirected could go a long way.” Constituencies in Ealing, Brent, Tottenham, Wathamstow, Dagenham, Lewisham, Tooting and Mitcham were among those with no cinema.
Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey said it worked with the BFI on projects which support access to art and film in places “with low cultural engagement or limited cultural opportunities”. The BFI said it invested £5.5 million a year to help provide better access to cinema for under-served communities.
