Thousands of people want action to build a cinema in Kidderminster after two decades without a screen.

Two Wyre Forest district councillors organised a petition after plans to build multi-screen facilities were announced in June.

The petition "snowballed" and collected 5,351 signatures from residents and businesses in Wyre Forest, Hartlebury, Cleobury Mortimer and Birmingham calling on the district council to "ensure Kidderminster gets a state-of-the-art multi-screen cinema without council subsidy and without further delay".

Film-buffs in the town have had to trek outside the district since Kidderminster's last cinema, the ABC in Oxford Street, closed in 1982.

Plans to include screens in the town centre redevelopment fell through in 2000.

Developer Centros Miller has revealed plans for a six-screen cinema - which would spell the final curtain for the 19th century Piano building - and retail giant B&Q wants to include a four-screen facility as part of a wider development in Crossley Retail Park.

Planning rules, which zone the retail park for the sale of bulky goods only, would have to be changed to allow this proposal to go ahead.

One of the petition organisers, Rachel Lewis, labelled both schemes "flawed", but added: "The problems are there to be overcome. We don't want to get bogged down in planning details.

"We must come out of this with a cinema and the council will not be forgiven if it fails to deliver."

Mrs Lewis, along with fellow organiser Mike Oborski, is not on the district council's planning (development control) committee but she declined to say which of the two plans she favoured.

Nick Hughes, chairman of Kidderminster Civic Society, stressed the group's support for a cinema but reiterated its opposition to the demolition of the Piano building because of its "valuable industrial heritage".

He said developers had long wanted an "excuse" to demolish it and argued the retail park was a more suitable venue.

Development control manager Mike Parker could not say when the plans would come before the planning committee as further information on both were awaited.