TODAY is the deadline for votes in the Shuttle/Times and News' big cinema referendum.

More than 2,500 people have had their say on whether Kidderminster's historic Piano Building, a disused former carpet warehouse, should be bulldozed to make way for a cinema.

Bosses insist this is the only way the big screen is going to return to the town - after more than two decades - as part of the Weavers Wharf development.

Highstone Estates, which is funding the town centre revamp, wants to know whether the weight of opinion would justify pursuing special permission to demolish the building, which was listed following an appeal by Kidderminster Civic Society.

And at the time of going to press, 87 per cent of our readers taking their chance to vote felt the need for a cinema in the new-look development outweighed the need to preserve part of Kidderminster's industrial heritage.

As well as votes, the referendum has sparked dozens of letters to the Shuttle/Times & News on potential alternative uses for the building.

Highstone insists keeping it would be uneconomically viable.

So the Shuttle/Times and News took a look at the detailed history of the scheme by delving into the files at Wyre Forest District Council's planning department.

In its submission to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport about the Piano Building, dated December 8 2002, the town's civic society highlighted the lack of a feasibility study into potential alternative uses as a reason for wanting "urgent listing".

Yet in a letter written two days later by Chris Dalzell, Highstone managing director, to developers Centros Miller, it is apparent a study of that type had already been conducted.

Mr Dalzell said: "While the structure of the Piano Building can be repaired, the cost of these works exceeds the commercial value of the building for all the uses considered, except residential.

"However, the small surplus on residential use takes no account of interest costs, nor does it make any allowance for developers' profit. Were these items deducted, residential use would also show a deficit of value against costs."

His letter concludes: "As the building is not listed and cannot be economically refurbished these reports support the request to demolish the Piano Building and to replace it with an economically viable building to complete the regeneration of this important town centre site."