THE Town Gardens Café is set to close its doors this weekend.

South Swindon Parish Council had put out an invitation to tender for the 106-year-old café. Interested parties were asked to put forward applications to run it for at least three years.

The café was first opened at Town Gardens in 1914 and was handed to the parish council by Swindon Borough Council in 2019.

A spokeswoman for the café said: “Most of you will be aware The Old Town Gardens Kiosk was recently put out to tender. After taking advice and giving the tender careful consideration I came to the conclusion that it would not be a viable option.

“I have given notice and Old Town Gardens Cafe’s last day of trading will be Sunday, March 21.

“I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you. I have been overwhelmed and very moved by the tremendous support and words

of encouragement over the past few months and throughout what has been a very difficult year for everybody.

“A special thank you to all the regular customers who have supported the cafe’ over the past 13 years.

“I have enjoyed our daily and weekly chats and it has been a pleasure getting to know you and your families. Some I have watched grow from babies to teenagers. I will miss all of you.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to Liz, for all her hard work and for keeping me relatively sane and smiling, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

The parish council has said that the cafe won't close for good as the current owner made the decision to leave after 13 years, a new owner is expected to take over soon.

A spokesman for the parish council said: "The café will close for a short period but will be reopened with a new operator in due course."

The parish council's chair, Chris Watts, added: "The parish council is currently in the final stages of a tender process to award a 3-year lease, with option to extend for a further 2 years, to run the Town Gardens Cafe.

"South Swindon Parish Council was awarded a 99-year lease for the Town Gardens and Queens Park in 2019. In securing these leases, the Parish Council was able to invest in these vital public assets where there had been no investment for several years prior to the transfer.

"The Town Gardens Cafe was also transferred and included a sitting tenant with a lease under a Tenancy at Will. This lease gave no security to the tenant or the parish in that a month's notice could be given by either party at any time, in this case the current tenant gave the parish council 3 weeks’ notice of lease termination. The new lease in place will prevent this from happening again.

"The parish council has maintained that the relationship between both parties should be under a suitable formal and professional footing that recognised the responsibilities, legal or otherwise, that would underpin the future relationship.

"The parish council is not in a position to gift such a new lease to an individual and therefore is required to open the process up to competitive tender.

"This process would have started earlier but for the pandemic and it is a matter of public record that the parish council supported the current tenant while they were not allowed to open during the first lockdown of 2020.

"The current situation is that the parish council has received numerous tenders for the new café lease. Parish councillors will determine the successful applicant at its March 23 full parish council meeting."