I WAS devastated when the Guardian broke the news about Walthamstow’s one and only cinema closing.

Back in 1994, I co-wrote an article called ‘Ernie’s the man who puts us in the picture’ for the Guardian as part of a page entitled Press when I was still attending George Monoux College

Ernie brought tales of the Granada to life, he told of its history and what it brought to the community.

I love the cinema, and as a child I attended nearly every week.

There are not enough activities in Walthamstow for the under-18s. If we want to keep the teenagers off the streets and out of the pubs, we need to provide them with places to go.

The cinema was easy to access for the young and the old, especially people who don’t have the luxury of owning their own car.

The cinema shouldn’t be limited to one genre. By restricting what films can be shown, we are breaking up the community.

This deal about the cinema changing hands was also kept very quiet. Surely, if we all knew, many people would have fought to stop this going through.

P. STREETING, Sturge Avenue, Walthamstow.

WITH regard to "Odeon Fanatical about Film". In view of the fact that Odeon has just sold the ABC cinema in Walthamstow and the cinema in Gravesend, this slogan is a joke.

The new owner of the cinemas is a businessman from Chigwell who would have liked to have continued to show mainstream films and Asian films under EMG Cinemas.

The clause in the sale banning the showing of English-language films is not worth the paper that it is written on. I would challenge Odeon to try and stop such showings.

The Odeon attitude is dictatorial, racist and discriminatory.

I am sure that everyone in Walthamstow and Gravesend would wish to see the local blockbuster Hollywood films as well as Bollywood films, as one would expect in any decent cinema.

My advice to the new owner is "show whatever films you like".

Odeon did not want these cinemas, someone else did and he should be able to show any films he wants.

JEFFREY MACKENZIE, Baltimore Place, Bellegrove Road, Welling, Kent.