A planning application could be lodged in the next fortnight by the man who wants to bring another cinema to Oswestry.

Former Regal owner Trevor Harris, who is acting as a consultant in the scheme, said the final preparations were taking place before the formal process began.

These included running a series of sound tests over the weekend to ensure noise from films would not affect residents close to the proposed new cinema at the former Salvation Army hall in King Street.

“The sound engineers were surprised by the level of noise from traffic using that road,” said Mr Harris.

“It’s quite a busy road – motorists use it to avoid the one-way system through the town – and their initial thoughts were the noise from cars would be far noisier than anything coming out of the cinema.”

Mr Harris has already met with representatives from Shropshire Council to discuss the plans.

The cinema, if it goes ahead, would show films as they were released – which, says Mr Harris, would make it a different proposition to Kinokulture.

He said: “The delays so far have been a bit disappointing. If the planning application decision was made in our favour within the next month, there would be a chance we could open by December when we could screen the new Star Wars film in the week it was released.

“As consultant, I am amazed by the negative response we have received from the town council. It seems to me members are more interested dreaming about having a multiplex – which, as we all know, is never going to happen – while residents are not getting a chance to say what they would like.

“In David Parry-Jones’ Reflections column in the Advertizer, it said the most popular thing residents wanted was a cinema – yet no-one seems to want to help us.

“It did make me think whether it was worth continuing with the project with little or no help from the powers that be. There’s a limit to what I can do personally because of ongoing health issues.

“But we will go ahead. The people in the town should stand up and demand something was done for the community – the council is sitting on £4m from the Smithfield site, so why not use some of it to help a new company with a project to bring something extra to the town?”