DESPITE all the concerns of residents about the conversion of the ABC cinema (See page 4), the change is surely a positive move for Catford.

Not only will the run-down site get a total overhaul and refurbishment, but it will keep both its screens.

Add to that a restaurant and a decent bar, and it seems to me people are getting a pretty good deal.

After all it is not as if the building is going to be turned into a crack house or a massage parlour.

When people come out from watching a two-and-a-half hour film, don't they want to sit down and have a drink? And what's wrong with that?

The opening of an attractive new cinema where you can eat and drink may even attract people from outside Catford to visit, going some of the way towards the council's dream of getting people from outside the borough to visit for a night out.

Providing the new owners ensure that the bar is for use by cinema-goers and not lager-louts, there should be fewer problems than at other urban night-spots.

But as Lewisham's borough commander Chief Superintendent Mike Humphrey points out, a lot of responsibility will lie at the door of the new owners. Only time will tell whether this is the right decision, but in the meantime lets try and be positive about the new development.