In the heyday of cinema in Bradford, there were no fewer than 44 picture-houses across the district.

That reflected the appetite for cinema-going among the public… and also the fact that it was the primary source of entertainment for the masses.

By 1980, the number was down to 25 working cinemas, as TV gained more of a stranglehold in the home and the advent of home video players brought movies to the nation’s living rooms.

Now Bradford’s cinema offer comprises the National Media Museum and the Cineworld complex, both in the city centre, and the Odeon multiplex at Thornbury, on the border between Bradford and Leeds.

As part of the Broadway shopping development, due to open in November, developers Westfield applied for planning permission to site a multi-screen cinema there.

The project has now received formal backing by Bradford Council, with its developer Meyer-Bergman stating a “high-quality” operator for the six-screen ‘boutique’ cinema will be announced in the near future, adding it would continue to work with the Council to make sure the details of the plans were “right for Bradford.”

Is there room for more? The National Media Museum thought not. Director Jo Quinton-Tulloch wrote a formal letter of objection to Bradford Council about the Broadway cinema, saying: “The proposed cinema would have a harmful impact on the future economic viability of the Museum in the city, with ‘trade draw’ from the same catchment area reducing its revenue and footfall; this in turn will both reduce the Museum’s economic value to the city as a tourist destination and its ability to deliver the educational outcomes agreed with the city.

“This reduced commercial performance will also threaten the sustainable future of the Museum in Bradford, making future investment in the Museum less attractive.”

The twitchiness is understandable; it isn’t very long ago that the National Media Museum was under threat of closure by its parent company the Science Museum Group; continued viability is vital for them.

The Media Museum has three distinct cinemas - the Cubby Broccoli screen, the Pictureville operation, now managed by Picturehouse Cinemas - which Jo Quinton-Tulloch says provides an income stream “critical to the sustainable future” of the museum, and the gigantic IMAX screen, which is currently undergoing an investment and upgrading programme to the tune of £780,000.

All impressive stuff… and as it should be, because after all Bradford is the UNESCO City of Film. And as such, do we actually have enough cinemas, rather than the potential for too many?

David Wilson is the Director of the City of Film. He ticks off the current cinematic landscape in Bradford: “There’s the National Media Museum… Cineworld… the Odeon at Thornbury… what’s the population of the Bradford district? Half a million or more. It’s also got a large and growing youthful population. The question is can the cinema market stand more?”

While not wanting to come down on one side or the other, David suggests that it might well be able to… as the cinemas might not directly be in competition with each other.

He says: “You need to consider that they all might be attracting slightly different markets. You have to give credit to the National Media Museum and what they’ve done with the Picturehouse link-up and the IMAX.

“But perhaps that attracts a different audience to Cineworld, which is perceived as attracting a fairly young clientele.

“Maybe the Broadway cinema would be different again. It might be that the people who go to see a film there have spent the day shopping, had something to eat, and decide to see a movie on a whim, or build it into their day out, which they might not necessarily do if they had to leave the centre to go over to Cineworld or the Media Museum.”

Jo Quinton-Tulloch and the Media Museum remained unconvinced, and believed they had the precedents to back up their objections. The letter quoted Bradford Council’s Core Strategy Development Plan of February 2014: “The Bradford District Retail & Leisure Study has concluded that the existing commercial leisure facilities (cinema, bingo, bowling sectors only) in the District are satisfactory and the principal focus for the Council should be on retaining these facilities over the plan period.”

Retaining, not expanding, says the Media Museum. Also quoted is a Bradford District Retail and Leisure Study Update of May 2013, which says projected cinema demand up to 2028 “is significantly below the current cinema provision and would tend to suggest that there is over provision of cinemas in the district”.

However, figures from the Film Distributors’ Association suggest that cinema audiences, however slowly, are actually increasing. Their annual cinema admissions number-crunching reveals that audiences have grown since 2010 (169.25m) through 2011 (171.56m) and up to their latest full-year stats in 2012 (172.4m). Furthermore, admissions in June this year were 13,254,544, up considerably from the 10,399,406 in the same period last year.

Could we be falling in love with the cinema-going experience all over again? David Wilson says: “As an experience, it’s second to none. You still get that buzz as an adult that you did as a kid, emerging from a great film in a dark cinema into the daylight.

“Cinema is a competitive industry but it doesn’t necessarily follow that one cinema will take business from another. I think there’s room for a choice if the offer is sufficiently different.”

Bradford Council ultimately took the view that there was room for another cinema in the city. But it remains to be seen whether the market will prove to support it. The story is far from over; as they used to say in the cliffhanger serial stories shown in the fleapits of Bradford’s cinema heyday… to be continued.