BURNLEY’S Hollywood Cinema is set to receive a boost as one of more than 40 venues around the country in line for additional funding from the government.

Forty-two cinemas across England will share £650,000 in the first set of allocations from a £30 million pot for independent cinemas, with more venues to receive cash in coming weeks.

This first tranche of the £30 million is being allocated by the British Film Institute on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

This comes amid an extremely difficult time for the industry with audience numbers dropping dramatically due to the coronavirus crisis and ensuing lockdown situation.

Burnley MP Antony Higginbotham said: “Burnley has a rich tapestry of arts venues and that includes the Hollywood Park cinema which almost everyone will have visited at some point.

“Helping that get Covid-Secure through this funding will allow it to safely bring back visitors ready for the winter blockbusters which includes some big British films like the latest James Bond.”

This funding boost comes amid an extremely difficult time for the industry with audience numbers dropping dramatically due to the coronavirus crisis and ensuing lockdown situation.

In response, the government says these measures are aimed at helping cinemas survive through the crisis and is part of the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help entertainment venues throughout the pandemic, with 14 theatres in the Reel Cinema chain, including Hollywood Park, set to share £139,958 for health and safety equipment.

Mr Higginbotham said: “I’m continuing to work with the Government to ensure our other cultural venues, from the Mechanics through to Burnley Youth Theatre, are protected too. That’s how we’ll ensure we have the same thriving cultural sector coming out of the pandemic as we had going into it.”

However, the arts sector continues to face tough times ahead with the Office for National Statistics finding that 23% of businesses in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector had reported severe to moderate risk of insolvency, compared with 11% across all industries.