Why I left a job I loved

As you may have read in today's (10/11/2016) Tenbury Advertiser the Regal Tenbury now has a new manager. As this is a job I loved doing for the last four years and because of some of the rumours circulating in town, I feel I should explain why I decided to leave.

During this year I increasingly found myself at odds with decisions being made by the Trustees and the direction they wanted the business to move.

We were also in disagreement over my contract renewal as they had declined to increase my paid hours from 30 a week to 35 as I had requested. For those who do not know I usually worked in excess of 48 hours a week and sometimes double that.

For the record: I was paid 18.75 hrs/week in 2013, 26.75 hrs/week in 2014, 30.75 hrs/week in 2015

I finally decided to leave when a Trustee, called me, amongst other things, lazy, incompetent, and responsible for putting the Regal "on it's arse" in a tirade of abuse after he had instructed me to do something that I considered unsafe and not in the best interest of either the Regal or its customers. Once this instruction was confirmed by other Trustees I felt my job had become untenable I had no option but to go.

Had I have been an employee rather than a contractor this would have been a constructive dismissal and I would have left immediately but I agreed that as I wanted the Regal to continue to thrive I would work my three months notice period to enable the trust to put a replacement management team in post, and to complete my 18th What's on brochure, which is due out at the end of this month.

In the last 12 months to the end of September we ran 49 live performances, 53 event cinema broadcasts, and 227 feature film screenings to an audience of over 21,500. In August we increased our audience numbers by 60% and our gross income by more than 70%. In October our gross turn-over exceeded £34,500 up £7,500 from the previous year.

Given these results I felt the comments about my performance where far from justified!

During my long notice period I have been overwhelmed by the good wishes from the volunteers and amazed at the number of people approaching me in the street to thank me and to wish me well. I had the opportunity tonight to thank many of the volunteers for their continued hard work and I would like to express my gratitude to all the customers who also made the job so enjoyable.

I will miss working at the Regal but I wish the Trust all the very best for the future, however I hope they don't lose sight of the good things that we have achieved.

Ian Little

General Manager

Regal Tenbury Trust

October 2012 - October 2016

Follow up article 

and down it goes again.

For the fourth time in it's short life the bollard at the corner of Teme Street & Market Street and been hit.

Whether is it poorly sighted, the road layout is not correct or there are just too many poor drivers using the town as a short cut nobody yet knows!

Tenbury Regal Open Days

The Regal in Tenbury Wells is inviting interested visitors to see the progress of the Heritage Lottery Funded restoration work at the cinema first-hand in early March. Tickets for these free short tours of the site are now available and guests will be able to see the work already completed as well as learn about what is still to be done.

Tours are expected to last for about half an hour, and will be led by volunteer guides. Visitors will see the progress in the main auditorium as well as in the foyer.

"We had a fantastic response to our Open Day before the construction work started" says Sarah Fellows, Regal Heritage Access Officer. "We're expecting these behind-the-scenes days to be just as popular, so we're advising people to book early to avoid disappointment as places are very limited."

The behind the scenes visits are running on Friday 2nd March and Saturday 3rd March.

Tickets are available now from Sarah Fellows by email on hao@tenburytown.org.uk, by phone on 07980 692302 or in person from the Pump Rooms in Tenbury Wells. 

People wishing to volunteer as guides for the event should get in touch by the same means.

Great News - The Tenbury Regal will be run by Management Trust

Tenbury Town Council voted unanimously in favour of allowing the newly refurbished Regal to be run by a Management Trust.

The full agreement is yet to be drafted but the plan is for the first agreement lease to run for 40 years.

Cllr Rigby said "It is absolutely imperative that a Management Trust is formed" and that the Town Council should "move forward rapidly with the full formation of the Trust"

His comments were echoed by Cllr Drummond and Cllr Bowkett.

Cllr Price added that "the Council should support the proposal as Councils are not good at running commercial enterprises".

Cllr Hudson explained that the Management Trust would be a Charity and hoped to attract Donations and Bequests, but needed to demonstrate that they had a long term agreement with the Council so that people felt secure in the knowledge that their money would be put to good use.