Tyneside Cinema Update

Thank you for signing our petition to call for the Tyneside Cinema Board and CEO to stand aside and allow an independent inquiry into sexual assault, harassment and bullying.

The Chair of the Board, Lucy Armstrong is refusing to step aside as is the Chief Executive Officer, Holli Keeble. 

Lucy even went on BBC regional television and when asked about the allegations of sexual harassment and bullying, denied all knowledge of it. She lied on television, we have seen emails to Lucy and others detailing these events sent over the past 12 months.

The inquiry continues, despite a lack of transparency for the process and no commitment to share the findings publicly.

You might not know that Tyneside Cinema is a charity and also receives money from major funders in the UK to keep running - that is taxpayers money. We think any organisation that receives taxpayers money has a duty to be open and honest and in this case share the findings of the report.

What next?

We’ve taken advice from independent experts in the fields of criminal justice, sexual harassment, sexual assault and corporate misconduct. Their recommendations are to:

- await the completion of the current inquiry
- formerly ask for the findings to be released publicly 
- challenge the findings if we do not feel that our concerns have been addressed

Our major concern is with the leadership of Lucy Armstrong and Holli Keeble who have been at the top of Tyneside for many years and have failed in their duty of care for all their employees and therefore failed the charity.

We are also very concerned by the lack of appropriate HR support for the staff and that staff work in an unsafe environment in which bullying, homophobia and racism are normalised. 

We’d all love to have Tyneside Cinema at the heart of Newcastle again - but not if they treat people like commodities.

We expect the inquiry to be completed in October. The Tyneside Cinema is scheduled to reopen at the end of September.

How you spend your time and money is, of course, your choice, no judgment here! But please consider whether your time and money are worthy of Tyneside Cinema in its current state.

Will you stick with us? Will you see this through with us? If so, follow us on social media and when the time comes, add your voice to our campaign.

Take care.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savetyneside 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/savetyneside 

Read all the details and see the evidence we have collected on our website. https://www.savetyneside.org