3:30pm Thursday 2nd September 2010
TOWN centre regeneration is not improving business for one cafe owner.
Since work started in the town centre in April, Christine Turner, owner of Chris’s Café, believes her trade has suffered and she deserves compensation.
Christine, 49, who has been running the cafe on College Street for two-and-a-half years, has seen business drop by around £200 a day.
“I’m struggling every single day. You try and make as many cut backs as you can but there are limits,” said Christine.
Swindon Council has given her a 10 per cent discount in business rates, but she does not think this is enough.
“It only works out as about a month’s rent,” she said. “It will look nice when it’s finished but at the moment it’s killing my trade.”
Work is scheduled to finish outside the café in November but Christine is concerned some of her customers have gone for good.
“I do feel like I have lost a lot of my regular customers,” she said.
“What’s frustrating me is that since I have had the shop we’ve had rubbish summers and then this summer we had a good one but I couldn’t put my furniture outside.
“The builders have been really good and I don’t want to fault them though.”
Christine has spoken to a union representative and hopes this will help with her claim.
A spokesman for Swindon Council said the work was the responsibility of Forward Swindon.
A Forward Swindon spokeswoman said: “The public realm works in Regent Street are part of a major investment to improve the environment for shoppers and attract business for Swindon’s retailers.
“Such works inevitably cause disruption which the contractors, Skanska, seek to minimise whilst working safely in a busy environment. Skanska has been working closely with all the retailers including Chris’s Café to ensure that pedestrian routes and signs to the shops affected are sign posted and will continue to do so.”
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