Our Response

Firstly, we would like to thank the public for the thousands of messages of support we have received. It is massively appreciated.  

We are extremely disappointed by yesterday's defamatory statement from Lewisham Council, the objective of which destroys the reputation of our company and deflects from the council's responsibility for the closure of Catford Mews.  

It is no secret how much pressure the cinema industry has been under of late and the fact that the council decided to make their incendiary statement on the same day that Cineworld announced the potential closure of 18 of their sites is very disappointing. Cinemas across the country have incurred significant debts since the pandemic relating to forced closures, the tripling of energy bills, and the recent Hollywood actors and writer's strike. 

Really Local Group’s purpose has been uniquely impacted by the effects of the pandemic. In launching its first venue 5 months before the government enforced closures, our company has never had the opportunity to build up reserves of any kind, unlike every other player in this industry. Further our insurance company refused to cover our business interruption claim. Despite these challenges we have made a meaningful impact in the communities we serve, and we are so proud of our team for their hard work and effort. 

We do not see how the council's statement helps to re-open Catford Mews, leaving it as the only borough in London without a cinema. Therefore, we feel we must set the record straight regarding this matter. 

Like Milford Towers, The Catford Centre has been underinvested in and poorly managed. Despite this, Really Local Group believed in the council's vision for Catford and made the decision to make the single largest investment in the Centre in a generation. 

Under our lease we were responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the internal structure of Catford Mews, CRPL was to be responsible for everything else such as the roof and including the provision of security. Sadly, this was not to be and over the past 5 years we have been forced to pour hundreds of thousands of pounds into the Catford Centre for maintenance, upkeep and security. 

We acknowledge the council's recent efforts to improve the situation, resulting in the appointment of a new asset manager earlier this year. Whilst this was a positive step it does not begin to heal the financial trauma incurred by our company during the years 2020-2023. 

Since the beginning, we are proud of the fact we have been open and transparent with the council regarding the challenges we have faced in both trade and the overall Catford Centre experience. Since 25 September 2024 we have made dozens of attempts to reach out to CRPL and local politicians to try and find a path forward. Not only did we hear nothing back, but our number was blocked by CRPL officers, until the lease was forfeited without warning on 29 October.  

Furthermore, it would appear that closing Catford Mews on half term week was intended to inflict maximum damage to our venue and to our reputation, especially whilst we were offering a number of community-based events including a Wild Robot themed colouring event for families and a screening of an indie film made by a local filmmaker.

Catford Mews has been a crucial pillar of the local community which has now been ripped away from the very people it was designed to serve. We remain optimistic that the council will engage with ourselves to resolve this situation as it is in everyone's best interest to do so. Our door is open. 

You can continue to support us by signing the online petition here.  

We will now address the specific comments and allegations made by the council.  

Really Local Group, the operators of Catford Mews, have run up significant arrears in excess of £650,000 since 2019. 

The council has included rent arrears totaling £204,000 relating to the period we were either unable to operate or severely restricted during covid. In addition, they have added in £168,000 which we have never received invoices for, nor have we, in recent years, received any annual service charge budget. 

We have always been committed to reaching an agreement on paying back rent arrears in future years as evidenced by the fact that we did not exercise our break clause in March of 2024. We note that any arrears would be lost permanently with the appointment of a new operator. 

Despite CRPL’s best efforts, Really Local Group hasn't been able to find a way forward. 

We fundamentally disagree with this. We thought we had reached an agreement with the council in May 2024. The discussions around this were and remain without prejudice, so we cannot go into detail, and we acknowledge that they were subject to final agreement.  However, as far as we are concerned, they formed a clear basis for a way forward that would have kept Catford Mews open and enabled the arrears to be paid off over future years. 

The council, or CRPL simply cannot afford to prop up a private commercial organisation to this scale. 

The costs burden has not, as the council suggests, been one way. We have shouldered significant repair and maintenance costs (including damage to venue caused by the roof leaking) of £94,000 in addition to daily security totaling £178,000 to prop up the Catford Centre, the costs of which were meant to be contractually borne by CRPL. Further:  

Because of the delay by the council in carrying out significant roof repairs for which they were responsible, thousands of pounds of damage were caused to the 1st floor studio at Catford mews. This caused the loss of our tenant and lost contractual rents of £84,000. 

For years, the council has directed the public to the Catford Mews toilets as a free council toilet. Whilst we have been happy to offer this service, this has also resulted in significant drug abuse and damage to our facilities, especially the drainage, resulting in further additional costs to our business. 

Our staff have endured dozens of frightening/xenophobic incidents from a very small minority. When they called upon Catford Centre security, they were repeatedly told that Centre management was not to intervene, leaving them in an unsafe situation. This required our business to shoulder the significant additional costs over the past 5 years outlined above. 

We also repeatedly raised our concerns with CRPL directors and officers and were repeatedly ignored with no meaningful improvements occurring.  

It isn’t fair to local businesses who pay their rent and service charges, and it isn’t fair to Lewisham Council Taxpayers. This also increasingly impairs the Council's finances over time making it more challenging to meet our regeneration objectives in Catford. 

We do not think it is fair that a small cinema group recovering from the pandemic should be burdened with the costs of wider centre upkeep and security and lost rent of £356,000. Despite this we have remained committed to paying towards arrears on top of this unexpected expense. 

Much of what Really Local Group have said in their statement about Catford Mews isn’t true. 

We have been transparent and open with both the council and our community throughout. It’s extremely sad to see a London council betray the team who have worked so hard all these years to keep the venue alive in the face of impossible circumstances. 

Similar situations have been reported at sites run by them across London, including Peckham Levels and the Ealing Project, which have both entered administration in the last three months alone. 

These situations are unrelated and have little in common with this one as both of these venues still continue to trade with supportive landlords.  

Really Local Group was brought in by Peckham Levels Ltd (PLL) lender Gravis Capital Partners in 2021 to stabilise matters after PLL incurred significant debts under its previous owner, Makeshift totaling more than £4million. It is defamatory and outrageous to suggest that RLG was the cause of PLL’s financial difficulties. Further it was never a part of the Really Local Group, but certain back-office functions were shared. In January, a purchaser made an offer to acquire this business. In July, this same purchaser pulled out and gave money to the acquirer to buy the business out of administration.  

RLG/Catford Mews held a lease until 2029, the terms of which had not been fulfilled by RLG due to their failure to pay bills to CRPL. 

We had a break clause on March 24 2024 which we intended to exercise but decided not to in the expectation that we were close to agreeing a “new deal” with the council. 

CRPL engaged in renegotiations in good faith and drafted a Heads of Terms agreement, which summarises the key considerations prior to a contract. Following this, RLG requested that the lease be transferred to a new company.  

As a precaution, CRPL asked RLG/Catford Mews for an asset-based guarantee. to ensure that the debt could be recovered. The Really Local Group never provided this. 

This is factually incorrect.  Both parties saw this deal as an opportunity for a clean slate and then a new company was proposed as the original lease had no provision for paying the covid arrears. Further we offered the requested guarantee at least 5 times both in person and in writing. 

We recognise operations like Catford Mews were severely impacted during the pandemic. In response to this, CRPL provided a significant rent-free period. The Council, in addition, chose to support the Really Local Group with a total of £77,890 of additional financial support during this period. A £50,000 grant was awarded to refurbish the rear of the property and increase the offer (and therefore income) at Catford Mews. That work was never delivered. 

This is an extremely misleading statement. First there has never been an official write-off of covid arrears as noted above. Of the £77,890 detailed £27,890 was granted to all businesses in Lewisham and £50,000 was part of the Lewisham Inclusive Growth Builder fund award, something which we qualified for. 

These monies noted above were invested into the venue. It would have been deeply irresponsible to have launched the tail when the business was recovering from its forced closure and was repeatedly required to make repair and maintenance investments to the fabric of the Catford centre, a responsibility of CPRL. 

Since receiving these funds, we have had numerous conversations with the council around their use. In addition, we have held dozens of free events on behalf of the council. We were proud to see ourselves as an extension of town hall. At no point before yesterday has anyone from CRPL or the council ever raised this issue with us, and we question the motives for raising it now. 

To date, Catford Mews has spent more than £1.4 million to set up the site and incurred losses of £930,000 through Covid, film release disruptions, energy costs spiking and the recent Hollywood strikes. We could have walked away a long time ago but chose not to as we were committed to putting the community and the wider Catford Centre regeneration first.