Chairs outside cafes - why is there no standard system?
 

The drive towards creating a ‘café society’ in Britain continues to stutter forward, according to all the most recent reports from around the country. Local authorities still cannot agree on the matter of outside seating areas.    Should the trade associations make representations to government on the matter?

In the most recent matter, Barry Cook of Café Licious in Swindon is the latest to raise the issue of council charges.

“Swindon has now become what is known as a Business Improvement District town, which means that as a business we have to pay 1 per cent of our rateable value on top of our business rates.  One of the reasons given for the extra cost, I believe, was to make the town centre have a more “European” feel by, for example, having cafes with outside seating. 

“I’d never previously thought too much about it, but as we have to pay the local council for our outside seating area, I’m very interested to know more about other coffee shop owner’s views.

The progress of towards ‘café culture’ elsewhere has been at best erratic.

Alton Town Council is reported as planning an experimental road closure to improve the safety of a piazza environment in its market square; in May, the local paper reported the adoption of a policy for the siting of tables and chairs on pedestrian highways, introducing a licence fee of £25 per square metre, with a flat annual renewal fee of £35. The town clerk was quoted as saying that a licence fee for the entire square would cost around £20,000, and that local businesses might find the cost excessive.

In Yarmouth, seafront traders declined to pay for a licence for outside seating. Again the press reported that the council wanted to see tables and chairs outside cafes, but proposed a charge is ten times higher than the one levied in Blackpool, and even higher than Covent Garden in London.  As a result, not a single café has applied for a pavement licence.

The council was reported to have set a price of £50 per square metre, but with a first-season discount of 60 per cent, to take into account the expense of buying tables and chairs.  It was reported that local cafes had been given a threat – if they did not take the offer up, the council would license coffee trailers which would compete with them.

Other councils have refused applications for different reasons – the East Grinstead council has refused an application for outdoor seating at the CJ’s café on the grounds of being ‘not quite acceptable’ – because it would overlook a cemetery

More and more councils are looking to the same thing - in Aberdeen, a planning application has been submitted for ‘a continental-style café with open-air seating’ in Falcon Square. It was proposed that the move would increase footfall in the square.

In Richmond, Yorkshire, the local press have reported last month that the town ‘has set off on a Continental journey after councillors approved plans to encourage a cafe culture.’ Applications had been received for tables and umbrellas tobe set out on the cobbled market square, and although some councillors worried about lost parking space, others were enthusiastic.

One recent row about tables outside cafes comes from Whitehaven.  The local paper reported yesterday that Cumbria County Council is considering licences to have tables and chairs on the pavement. The fee, likely to be about £50, will apply everywhere in Cumbria, except Carlisle, where the paper says that city council already levies a charge.

Curiously, in Edinburgh, home of the longest-established late-night café culture during the festival time, Starbucks has been denied an application for a brief period of 24-hour opening.

However, the town council in Blackburn is reported to have considered a plan for a ‘coffee trail’ around the town, seeing a café culture as a way of re-generating the town centre as an evening venue. The Night-time Economy Strategy group is looking at the idea among ways to revive interest in an area where some businesses have begun to close early, even before commuters go home.

And on 13 March we reported:  Following the continuing stories about cafes being harassed by councils for outdoor tables there’s a nice report on the subject from the local paper in Newton Abbott, Devon.     Costa Coffee put chairs and tables out in a pedestrian precinct, and the council objected – but the town centre manager said yesterday she backs the company's plans.   "I think it is superb. We are trying to create a pavement cafe culture in the town centre and I wholeheartedly support their application. It enhances the ambience in that part of the pedestrianised town centre."    Refreshingly, she added that other cafes in the area could benefit from doing the same.

So, will the trade associations take the matter up on behalf of the cafe trade, or will the matter continue to be a lottery, depending on which area you do business in?  Email your comments to the editor!