Hoylake was promised a game-changing new cinema. Why has it failed to materialise?
A war by proxy fought in Wirral’s seaside village
Dear readers — Spend an hour in Hoylake and two hot topics will come up in nearly every conversation you have: the row over the rewilding of its beloved beach, and the uncertain future of the Beacon Project. While most people are aware of the ins and outs of the Hoylake Beach saga (and if you’re not, you can catch up here with a piece we wrote back in 2021), the Beacon Project is shrouded in a little more mystery.
The story goes like this: back in 2017, a community group called Hoylake Village Life (HVL) proposed the conversion of the unoccupied town hall building into a cinema. They approached a local developer, called Hyglar, to do the conversion, and as part of that deal a small block of flats were to be built behind the hall — the bottom floor of which would be used as an artisan space for local creatives. People were overjoyed that the empty town hall would be used again — after all, it was in a conservation area and had plenty of historic features. Why should such a gorgeous building be left to waste away?
These plans were approved by Wirral Council in 2018, and nearly £4 million of funding was given to Hyglar by the government to complete the project as part of the Coastal Communities Fund. So why, six years after the idea was received so graciously, has the Beacon Project erupted into a vicious row that has split the community in two? That’s today’s story, which is a members only affair.
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Hoylake was promised a game-changing new cinema. Why has it failed to materialise?
By Abi Whistance
“It’s been a really difficult few years, I’ll be honest.” I’m speaking to David Burke, the director of Hyglar Properties and the man in charge of the transformation of Hoylake’s Victorian town hall into a cinema. Clearly, Burke has a penchant for understatement.
The cinema was the jewel in the crown of the Beacon Project, a supposedly game-changing plan for the village, which was proposed by local community group Hoylake Village Life (HVL) back in 2017. The project received £3.6 million of public money from the government’s Coastal Communities Fund, and promised to give Hoylake not only a new cinema, but a hub of cafes, restaurants and creative spaces, as well as a small block of 40 flats.
The project came at an exciting time for Hoylake — The Open had returned to the village in 2014, bringing thousands of golf fans to Wirral. And even when Hoylake wasn’t swarming with chinos, things were looking good: detached house prices stretching up to £1.4 million and swanky new bars and cafes opening. The new cinema and artistic space would be the icing on the cake. It even got the Hollywood stamp of approval when Wirral’s own 007 star Daniel Craig was one of 300 signatories writing to the council to back the project.
And then things started to go wrong. And then they went even more wrong. Because in Hoylake, when it rains it pours. And since 2018, the Hoylake Beacon has been in Skyfall.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this exciting, but — in the grand scheme of things, relatively modest — regeneration project tore Hoylake apart. Theories have begun to swirl online over what happened to the promising Beacon Project after it failed to be completed by its due date of the end of 2020. Many in the town appear to believe the cinema was some kind of decoy project to instead build a block of flats. Hoylake councillor Tony Cox has decried the project a “potential waste of millions of pounds”, HVL staff have been sent nasty letters and — most bizarrely — many in the town believe the stress of the situation resulted in the death of Burke’s own father, Mike, who passed away after a heart attack in 2021.
In a bid to clear things up I’ve tracked down the man at the centre of the storm — Hyglar director David Burke. He’s largely avoided speaking publicly about the Beacon Project, issuing updates few and far between to keep out of the drama. So I’m surprised when he accepts my request for an interview, jumping immediately into what has held the project up.
He says that while he “appreciates people’s views” over the delays to the Beacon, in recent years he’s “bearing the brunt” of some rather unpleasant accusations — including spending ludicrous amounts of money and running the project’s funds dry. Burke sets me straight: here’s what happened, in his words.
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