CHESTER’S long-awaited new theatre is set to be developed in the city centre’s listed Art Deco former cinema.

Culture and recreation cabinet member Stuart Parker received the backing of Cheshire West and Chester council for the plan to use the building, in Northgate Street, to house the £43m cultural flagship.

It will replace the former Gateway, which closed in 2007.

Cllr Parker said: “This will be a theatre for residents across the borough – not just the people of Chester.

“As a producing theatre, it will have links with every section of our communities, particularly, of course, as an educational asset for our young people.

“There will be no compromise on standards. We want the very best. Evidence from the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre shows that people are willing to travel for the right quality of event.

“In fact, 80% of our visitors in 2010 came from within a 60-minute drive-time, demonstrating that a Chester-based theatre is accessible to all within the borough – and for a considerable distance beyond.” The council was also told the new theatre would be vital in creating the vision of two specific cultural quarters in the city – one for the spoken word and performance centred on the town hall, and the other for visual arts and heritage, based on the Castle and Little Roodee.