BOLTON'S town centre cinema is closing 'until further notice'.

The Light Cinema in the Market Place Shopping Centre shut yesterday ­— and is only one of two of the ten theatres run by the chain to be shutting temporarily, according to The Light Cinema website.

Cinema bosses blamed the impact of covid on the film industry and the lack of ongoing' Government support.

The closure comes as Cineworld, which has a venue in The Valley, said it was shutting its cinemas temporarily.

The Light Cinema announced it was shutting the Bolton venue on its website.

It stated: "We‘re sad to announce that we’ve made the hard decision to temporarily close our Bolton cinema until further notice.

"Despite our best efforts to keep all of our sites open, the recent delays of film releases by the US studios and the lack of ongoing support for cinemas by government, means that we are now in a position where this is no longer possible.

"With regret, we are announcing that with immediate effect, our site at Bolton will temporarily close. We are hugely grateful for the support of our team, guests and loyal Infinity members, who adapted to the changing rules with generosity of spirit and showed that cinema was still to be enjoyed. For Infinity members, the scheme is suspended along with all direct debits until further notice.

"We truly believe in the big screen experience and we look forward to welcoming you back as soon as conditions allow. In the meantime, we realise this is a tough time for our country and our thoughts are with everyone affected by this, including our team members, those in other cinema businesses and in other sectors."

There is no date for the cinema's reopening. It closed yesterday after reopen after lockdown with a series of measures in place on August 21.

They included only accepting contactless and card payments, amended seating layouts to create safe space between groups, circulating full fresh air through the cinema’s air-conditioning, protective screens at tills points, enhanced cleaning of high frequency areas and easily accessible hand sanitiser stations.

The Light Cinema opened in 2016 and was the first town centre cinema to open since the Cannon, in Bradshawgate, closed its doors on January 22, 1998.

Annual memberships will be 'paused' and closed at the end of the year long contract.