A petition launched to save a popular Cardiff café which is expected to leave its current site this summer has received thousands of signatures. The Change.org petition, titled 'stop Cardiff Council evicting Secret Garden Café from Bute Park' was launched on Friday May 12 and has received just over 9,700 signatures in four days.
Cardiff Council said a direct award of a lease renewal for the café, which has been at the Bute Park for five years, could not be made because its tenancy has expired and "a new management agreement and associated lease are now required". Café owner, Melissa Boothman, received a notice to quit from the council, meaning her business has to leave the premises by August 2, after months of unsuccessful lease renewal negotiations.
Mother of two, Pam French, who set up the petition said the café helped her to integrate into new surroundings when she moved to Cardiff five years ago. She said: "I never have a local pub, I have a local café and in each of the places I have lived, I have always had a local café ."
Read more: 'Woman running popular Secret Garden Café told by council she has to leave'
Describing the experience of moving to a new city and how the Secret Garden Café helped, Pam added: "You have got young kids, you are feeling quite isolated, you don't know anyone, it is a really easy way to just go and feel like you have got a connection with someone. Mel was one of the first people I was talking to every day, and the staff in there, and you just feel like you have somewhere you can go to.
"Other friends today were saying they feel that way too. The places that you go to when your kids are little are quite special to you. I think that is why it feels like such a devastating thing." The Secret Garden Café's lease was due to expire in March but the council has agreed for the business to stay where it is under an interim arrangement, known as a tenancy at will, pending conclusion of a procurement exercise.
A procurement process will commence on June 5 and is expected to last up to six weeks. Pam added: "It is just a totally different vibe that you get anywhere else. It is like walking into somewhere where you feel like you belong. We go to the park because of the Secret Garden and I think that is the same for a lot of people.
"It is not like you can replace it with something else. That is the reason we go to the park and we will go to a different park if it is not there." Cardiff Council said the tender opportunity will be openly advertised to the market through Sell 2 Wales and the procurement portal Proactis. The local authority said that the current tenant is free to place a bid of their own once the procurement process is launched.
However, with a notice to quit having been served on the business, café owner Melissa said she has left with little time to act. Even if she decides to re-tender for the lease, Melissa said she still has just three months to tie up the business under the current uncertainty. The council expects the successful operator to be installed or, if the current tenant puts in a bid and is successful, starting to trade under the new agreement in early August.
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