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Cafe owner "gobsmacked" at 800 name petition

By Becky Barnes
October 08, 2012

The owner of a cafe faced with a 1,000 per cent rent rise said he was "gobsmacked" at the support shown by the users.

Andy Jordan, owner of the Pinewood Bar and Cafe in Old Wokingham Road, Crowthorne, gathered together 800 names on a petition against plans from Wokingham Without Parish council to increase the cafe's rent from £2,000 a year to £22,000.

The petition was handed in at a meeting of Wokingham Without Parish Council on Monday, October 1 where councillors decided to defer any decision to increase the rent until the new year.

At the meeting, Cllr Gerry Brown said: “We need to time to collate and take advice, and the sooner this is resolved the better.

“We will have constructive discussions with Mr and Mrs Jordan in the next few weeks.”

After the meeting Mr Jordan, 57, said: “It gives us some breathing space. We’re there to stay, though, and don’t want to move. I don’t think the parish council really thought it through.

“It’s got to be resolved because there needs to be a café and there is a need for it. There’s no other place like it, it’s absolutely unique.”

Cafe faces closure after 1,000 per cent rent increase

Andy and Pauline spent their £75,000 life savings refurbishing the bar and café. Around 30 people attended the meeting to support the couple.

Andy added: “It was an amazing turnout – I was gobsmacked and it shows the support is there.

“We are a community centre, rather than a commercial one, so we want to go forward on that basis.”

Cllr Brown said afterwards the parish council did not want to see the bar and café close. He added: “It is an integral part of the site and an important part of the whole atmosphere there. It’s a question of affordability.

“We want to be supportive of the café and find a realistic solution to the problem.”

However, one woman, who attended the meeting and asked not to be named, said she felt the decision to postpone the outcome until January was ‘unjust’.

“The cafe is the only place in the area to go,” she said. “It is a very good community facility. Raising the rent to £22,000 is ludicrous.”

She added: “My feeling was that the councillors were extremely rude to the public at the meeting.

“I am amazed they sit like this with their backs to the public.”

Janine Jackson, who works part-time at the café said: “The new rent is outrageous. Of course rent goes up but that is just extreme and makes someone feel they are not wanted.”

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Most recent user comments 8 of 8

Mavdo, no, I didn't have to put in 75k to get my business up to scratch but I did have to invest quite a bit. However, I also looked into the rents and found it to be realistic. I agree with Badger I'm afraid. It is more than business suicide if these tennants honestly believed that £2000 a year was fair. I would have wanted something in writing which would cover them for a good few years if I were going to invest 75K. Expecting the council to keep the rent at such an unrealistic low was amazingly stupid I am afraid to say. Perhaps they should go back to a lincat boiler for their coffee and tea's rather than having fancy machines that do it for you. Perhaps they should go round different cafe's and ask the owners/managers how they make a profit as they obviously don't have much of an idea at the moment. If they aren't making a profit at £2000 a year then they are seriously doing something very wrong with the number of customers they have. I would go and have a nose around there but think I ought to keep my head down with the comments I have made!! lol

HK, bracknell
11/10/2012 at 16:28

HK - nice to see some common sense! I am a commercial landlord and I understand market forces dictate rental value. I completely agree with you that with the size of their premises and the number of customers they have, they should be able to make a profit. If not, let someone else rent it.

PoneRana – not a bad idea, but the council may as well own the business and the current tenants go and work for them. Then it would be up to the council to make a profit and any they do make put back into the coffers to invest on our behalf. Then the current tenants will not have to worry about things like rent etc. and will have a guaranteed income – it works for me.

Mavdo – It is pretty much always up to the tenant to fit out their own shop / retail unit. You obviously do not understand this. A major high street retailer would not spend say £100k fitting out a shop without having a long-term lease in place and agreed rent increases. Anything else is naive and business suicide.

Winney – I expect the council to do their job and charge a proper level of rent based on the local commercial lettings market. This is not something you, I or the council should decide, but rather market forces, so not sure what you think there is for you and I not to agree about? There is a massive emotional outpouring for the current tenants, which does not interest me as I don’t know them. Any decision about a rent increase should be fair, justified and realistic. You don’t seem to believe in these values and want unfair cheap rent for your mates. It’s not on and I hope the council behave responsibly

badger44, Farley Hill
09/10/2012 at 14:32

@HK - did you have to first put in £75k of your own money to improve the building to allow for its use as a cafe? If you did, then it is a fair comparison and maybe a cafe here isn't feasible (the council shouldn't subsidise a business, when all costs and investment are taken into consideration - rents on Woolworths weren't reduced just because they were struggling).

But the flip side is that, realistically, this business will close if rent goes up that high. For whatever reason, this business is not as successful as the council rent is now demanding because they just aren't making enough money per year to cover it. If the council accepts that, and still puts the rent up, then it knows it is closing the business and removing this facility. It is also losing the rent that it was getting and is therefore *reducing* its income.

Perhaps it could help with a few days of a business advice to try and help cut costs and increase revenue for both parties? Perhaps it could increase the rent in a staggered manner.

mavdo, Wokingham
09/10/2012 at 10:11

All I can say is I wish my rent for the Market Cafe and the tiny space it takes up was as as low as £2000 a year if I opened 6 days a week. The council lead these people up the garden path and that is unfair. In comparrison, for the size of the unit and the 100's of people it serves, £22000 is a VERY fair rent IF the utility bills are included. I would be over the moon to have a place that size and only be paying what they are. My rent for my tiny space would equate to over £19000. I think they should think themselves VERY lucky to have had such a long honeymoon rent. The more I think about it all, the more it gives me the hump I'm afraid. I still cannot understand how they make very little profit. With 12 members of staff, they must be making a mint and if they aren't, then they are doing something VERY wrong. Rents should be set at a fair figure across the board in the real world. Alas, we don't live in that world and neither do our councils.

HK, bracknell
09/10/2012 at 07:54

Yeah badger it is OUR money - and guess what, I don't agree with you so what happens then?

Winstanley, Bracknell
08/10/2012 at 17:56

The council should keep the rent low at around £6k per year but then take a percentage say 10% of the profits. This would ensure their involvement in what after all is a community facility that they should be supporting.

PoneRana, Wokingham
08/10/2012 at 14:07

I am no great fan of the council as I think they get a lot of things wrong, including commercial rent setting, for example £2k as a low-start rent was clearly unrealistic and misleading for these tenants.

There is an established need for a café / bar / hall at Pinewood due to the large number of people who regularly visit the site to attend clubs, etc. so the existing tenants (or new tenants) should be able to run a profitable café / hall-letting business while paying proper, reasonable and realistic rent.

The council’s money is OUR money and I for one want to know that they are running their affairs properly when they represent us. Clearly charging £2k rent for this premises is not doing that.

The landlord and tenant should have built in agreed rent increases into their agreement. Extremely naïve behaviour from the tenant; poor advice and management by the council.

Come on the council, sort it out – represent us properly by charging proper rent for this premesis!

I would think their rent should be in the region of £12-15k without the hall, nearer £20k with it.

badger44, Farley Hill
08/10/2012 at 13:25

Absolutely ridiculous.

“We want to be supportive of the café and find a realistic solution to the problem.” - how about NOT raising the rent by 1,000%? You're a shambles.