Cafe wars break out over Council ‘favouritism’

Feel Good Cafe

The row over what has been dubbed Rochdale's 'Communist Cafe' has intensified after adverts for the cafe have appeared free of charge in Council/Town Centre Management Company funded publications. This follows the news revealed by Rochdale Online earlier this month that the cafe, run by Rochdale Town Centre Management Company, has been awarded a 100 per cent exemption by Rochdale Council on the £30,000 business rates bill.

Traders are angry that powers under the Localism Act, that allow councils to grant discretionary discounts for business rates as they see fit, are being used for what has been branded a Council 'pet project' with a picture of the council’s cabinet member for finance, Farooq Ahmed, on the wall, and will see taxpayers foot the bill for the cafe’s annual £30,000 business rates bill on top of the six figure sum the Council spent on setting up and fitting out the cafe before handing it over to Town Centre Management.

Town Centre Management CEO, Debbie Hernon, has said that as the cafe only sells snacks and drinks it is not in competition with other town centre cafes, however, this has been dismissed as "errant nonsense" by one cafe owner who said that most of a cafe's profits come from drinks and snacks rather than meals, so in fact the Feel Good Cafe is "creaming off" the most profitable sector of the cafe market.

Rochdale’s MP Simon Danczuk said traders had been to see him to complain about the business rates exemption, arguing that it was unfair and insulting.

He said: “I have written to the leader of the Council and the Chief Executive asking for clarification on where they are using these discretionary powers. I’m all for competition but we have to have a level playing field and it doesn’t seem right that taxpayers should be funding Town Centre Management cafes that could force private businesses to close. This is creating a lot of ill-feeling in the town and I’m not happy about it.”

One of the traders to complain is Nadeem Ashraf, owner of Cafe Amie on Yorkshire Street.

“We just want a level playing field,” he said. “This cafe is a few hundred yards away from my shop and we have to pay a heavy business rates burden while they pass the bill on to the taxpayer. It doesn’t seem fair.”

Paul Stone, the co-owner of Coffee Options in the Exchange Shopping Centre, added that traders saw it as yet another kick in the teeth from the Council.

“You have to sell a lot of coffees to pay for your business rates bill,” he said. “There’s not a lot of money in this town and businesses have to work very hard to make a living. It’s an insult when you see a cafe open up that gets its fixtures and fittings paid for by the taxpayer, free adverts in council publications and its business rates bill paid for. It’s as though the Council doesn’t care about us.”

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/83434/feel-good-cafe-expansion-greeted-with-anger

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/83506/town-centre-management-responds-to-criticism-of-feel-good-cafe-business-rates-exemption