Petition to save a Weymouth beach cafe from a takeover gains hundreds of signatures

A petition to save a beach cafe in Weymouth from being taken over by the town council has reached over 1,300 signatures.

Aunty Vi's Café has been serving customers for more than 14 years near Brunswick Terrace, but it's up for a new lease next year.

Now, it's emerged Weymouth Town Council might not be planning to renew that lease or put it out to tender.

Instead, councillors will discuss spending £57,785 to purchase and fit out the kiosk and run it themselves.

It would be their second kiosk along Weymouth Beach.

Peter Townsend is the current occupant and runs Aunty Vi's.

He said:

"What's come out of the blue is their very underhand way of putting something together to take over my business."

He claims Weymouth Town Council have been working on the plans for months.

"It's been in the making for months now and I'm the last person to know.

"It's quite unbelieveable that this was all going on behind the scenes and I'm the last man to find out."

He found out last week and his family quickly put together a petition to stop the move and urge the council to renew the lease.

A report to Weymouth Town Council on Wednesday said:

"The kiosk provides an opportunity for the council to run a second in-house catering unit on Weymouth beach.

"The first unit the Council will be operating is the kiosk at the new Beach Office facility, and it will be open in Spring 2021; this was agreed at the Finance and Governance meeting in March.

"The business plan for the Beach Office kiosk helped to inform the business plan for Brunswick Terrace.

"Through having more than one site, it provides economies of scale when purchasing goods and equipment and will also allow the costs of the supervisor role to be spread across two sites."

The petition is calling on the council to renew the lease.

It reads:

"While Pete would love to continue the lease, this issue is bigger than his story. If Weymouth Town Council (WTC) take over the management of the site, it opens the doors for them to take over other similar establishments."

As of last night, 1,336 people had signed the petition.

Peter said:

"It's hugely humbling. People are coming up to me every 5 minutes and saying 'We're with you, we're with you on this, you do a good job."

"It's not over until the fat lady sings and I don't know any fat ladies but I do know a very good singer, and he always sings every year at Aunty Vi's and we have a huge gathering and we have a great time."

In a statement to Greatest Hits Radio Dorset, a spokesperson for Weymouth Town Council said:

"The 10-year lease for the Brunswick catering site expires on 31st March 2021. The tenant knew that the lease would expire after 10 years when they signed it in 2011. There are no provisions for an extension to the lease.

"Given that the lease comes to an end in March 2021, the council had to consider future options for the site and has been doing so for some months. This is best practice.

"Recent government guidance has indicated that councils might be able to justify an extension or modification of contracts/leases if they are faced by unforeseeable circumstances, such as staff sickness due to Covid or staff efforts being diverted to Covid-related procurement activities.

"No such circumstances currently exist in the town council and, therefore, no extension can be justified."