Telford cafe owners 'lost hundreds' after sign dispute
The owners of a cafe have said they lost more than £400 after the local council forced them to take down a sign.John and Debbie Johnson, who run Heath Hill Cafe, received a letter last week threatening them with a fine if they did not remove their sign, which is on a verge outside an industrial estate in Telford.The couple have urged Telford and Wrekin Council to show "a bit of empathy" to small businesses during a cost-of-living crisis.A spokesperson for the authority said they were "reviewing the case and keen to work with the cafe to find a resolution."
Heath Hill Cafe - also known as Bostin Fittle - is based on an industrial estate in Dawley, and has been running for a decade, with Mr and Mrs Johnson operating it for the past four years. Its nickname Bostin Fittle is Black Country dialect for good food.The business relies on passing trade, hoping hungry customers spot their sign, which is on a verge opposite Heath Hill roundabout. But on 10 February the couple were issued with a letter from Telford and Wrekin Council instructing them to remove the sign within 48 hours or face a fine.
Without the sign drawing customers in, 60-year-old Mrs Johnson estimated that the business had lost "four or five hundred pounds."She added that it had been on the verge "for the whole time it's been a cafe", but only remaining in place during opening hours between 07:30 and 14:00.
Fridays are normally the cafe's busiest day of the week, but Mrs Johnson said without the sign bringing in customers, she was "just stood there in tears.""It's our only income, it's all me and my husband have got - and we had no customers."
The couple have now been told they can put their sign back up while the council decides what to do.Mr Johnson, who is 63, described the situation as going "past a joke.""The sign has been there for ten years - it's not a danger to the public, and it's not just become hazardous," he said."If there's a motorist on [the verge], then they've already caused havoc!"
Mrs Johnson said trying to ring the council to talk about the sign was nearly impossible - especially with their controversial digital customer service system, Ask Tom."It was just so frustrating," she said, adding that she was sent "backwards and forwards to [Ask] Tom.""I don't want to talk to Tom ever again!"
A spokesperson for Telford and Wrekin Council said: "We have been made aware of concerns raised following the removal of the sign."The authority added that its "primary focus is to always protect care and invest for all residents", and that it was "reviewing the case and keen to work with the cafe to find a resolution".But Mr Johnson said he believed the council needed to show more understanding for small businesses struggling through the cost-of-living crisis.He questioned: "Why send a letter, and someone wearing a camera into our caff, when they could have just popped in [and explained] in the first place?""It's just pathetic really, because [the sign] has been there so long, it ain't a problem."
Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Daily Record
Barclays issues important update for British spenders
The bank has issued an alert for debit and credit card holders in light of UK consumer confidence dipping A major high street bank has issued an important warning for anyone with a credit or debit card. Barclays has released a notice to all debit and credit card holders, highlighting a slowdown in spending in May. The bank, which competes with NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds Bank, HSBC UK, TSB, and Santander, reported that consumer card spending rose by a mere 1.0 per cent year-on-year in May. This is a significant drop from the 4.5 per cent growth observed in April. The growth rate also falls short of the current CPIH inflation rate of 3.5 per cent, reports Birmingham Live. According to Barclays, consumers are "cutting back" due to dwindling confidence in their personal finances. The bank's research revealed a three-percentage-point decline in confidence in household finances, down to 67 per cent, and a four-percentage-point drop in the ability to spend on non-essential items, now standing at 56 per cent. Discretionary spending saw a modest 2.0 per cent increase, a notable decrease from the 5.1 per cent recorded in April, as nearly half (46 per cent) of UK adults expressed intentions to reduce their expenditures. Barclays' study also highlighted growing concerns in several areas, including 'shrinkflation' (up four percentage points to 82 per cent), 'streamflation', and interest rates (up three percentage points to 64 per cent). Karen Johnson, Head of Retail at Barclays, gave her thoughts as to why non-essential spending has dipped. "Consumers are clearly becoming more value-conscious as financial pressures persist, but they're still finding joy in the everyday - whether that's a small treat, a cinema trip, a garden project, or a carefully planned getaway," she said. The weather is not something Brits might consider when it comes to loosening the purse strings. But it turns out the elements play a role in our spending, and how much cash we part with at any given time. Scots enjoyed several scorchers for the majority of last month, with record-breaking sunshine and temperatures. However, despite no rain for the first 23 days of May, four weeks' worth of rain fell in just three days at the start of June, pushing it into wetter-than-average territory. "The double bank holidays in May and record sunshine will have given non-essential spending a helpful boost," Johnson noted. "But this was largely outweighed by the rainy weather in the second half of the month. "Meanwhile, longer-term uncertainty continues to shape how and where people choose to spend." The Barclays Consumer Spend report amalgamates hundreds of millions of customer transactions with consumer research to offer a comprehensive insight into UK spending. It comes as Barclays Bank is reducing its number of branches and has closed a significant number in the past few years. Branches throughout the UK, including Scotland, have disappeared, in light of changes in how people bank. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Final event of Michael Johnson's revolutionary £9million Grand Slam Track embarrassingly CANCELLED
The four-time Olympic gold medal winner launched the venture last year Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE LAST event of Michael Johnson's new athletics league in Los Angeles has been cancelled due to cash woes. The pilot season of the Grand Slam Track was due to climax in California on June 28-29 following race meetings in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track is set to finish early Credit: Getty 2 The legendary sprinter's lucrative event has a prize pool of £9.2m Credit: Alamy Yet the two-day meet at the Drake Stadium will not go ahead with sources claiming the economics of the deal at the venue were poor. It is a surprise move to finish the inaugural series prematurely, especially when British stars Zharnel Hughes, Daryll Neita and Matthew Hudson-Smith were all planning to run. And it throws into doubt the whole business model for the GST for next year, especially as they pay top athletes $100,000 (£74,000) for winning each Slam. It began in the Jamaican capital in April but races took place in front of largely empty stands. READ MORE ON SPORT GAME CHANGER Major Premier League TV change with broadcasting giant to lose all coverage Four-time Olympic champion Johnson, 57, wanted to focus on track stars – there are no field events in the schedule – but the opening three rounds were beset by disappointing ticket sales. Johnson wanted to focus on the US TV market this time but there is a chance he might look to Europe for the 2026 edition with London a favourable destination. Sources close to the event say the ongoing riots in the city which are against Donald Trump's controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy were not the overriding factor in the decision to cancel. Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medal sprinter, hoped to "revolutionise the track landscape" with the venture. BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK The season offered a total prize fund of $12.6million (£9.2million) split over four events. Johnson has been critical of the Diamond League for failing to bring in new audiences. Olympic legend and third fastest woman of all time demolishes parents at school sports day He said last year: " love this sport and owe everything I have to this sport. "It's been a shame for me to watch [the Diamond League] over the last couple of decades since I retired not be able to continue to provide the same amazing moments to people, outside of just the Olympics. "Over three billion people are watching the sport once a year during major championships and have an expressed interest to continue watching the sport if there was a place to do so. "So I see [Grand Slam Track] as a real opportunity from that perspective."
North Wales Chronicle
2 days ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Council tax bills set to rise at fastest rate for two decades, economist warns
Paul Johnson said that local government in England did 'perhaps a little bit better than it might have expected' out of the Chancellor's statement on Wednesday, but the 'sting in the tail' is the assumption that 'council tax bills will rise by 5% a year' as part of the funding. The core spending power of councils is set to increase by 2.6% a year from next year, and 'if English councils do choose 5% increases – and most almost certainly will – council tax bills look set to rise at their fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05', Mr Johnson said on Thursday. On Wednesday, Ms Reeves said that ministers will not be 'going above' the 5% annual increases in council tax. She told ITV: 'The previous government increased council tax by 5% a year, and we have stuck to that. We won't be going above that. 'That is the council tax policy that we inherited from the previous government, and that we will be continuing.' The biggest winner from Wednesday's statement was the NHS, which will see its budget rise by £29 billion per year in real terms. Ruth Curtice, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, has said that Britain is turning into a 'National Health State'. Overnight, the think tank said Ms Reeves' announcements had followed a recent trend that saw increases for the NHS come at the expense of other public services. Ms Curtice said: 'Health accounted for 90% of the extra public service spending, continuing a trend that is seeing the British state morph into a National Health State, with half of public service spending set to be on health by the end of the decade.' Defence was another of Wednesday's winners, Ms Curtice said, receiving a significant increase in capital spending while other departments saw an overall £3.6 billion real-terms cut in investment. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) made similar arguments about 'substantial' investment in the NHS and defence coming at the expense of other departments, although Mr Johnson warned on Wednesday the money may not be enough. In his snap reaction to the review, Mr Johnson said: 'Aiming to get back to meeting the NHS 18-week target for hospital waiting times within this Parliament is enormously ambitious – an NHS funding settlement below the long-run average might not measure up. 'And on defence, it's entirely possible that an increase in the Nato spending target will mean that maintaining defence spending at 2.6% of GDP no longer cuts the mustard.' Ms Curtice added that low and middle-income families had also done well out of the spending review 'after two rounds of painful tax rises and welfare cuts', with the poorest fifth of families benefiting from an average of £1,700 in extra spending on schools, hospitals and the police. She warned that, without economic growth, another round of tax rises was likely to come in the autumn as the Chancellor seeks to balance the books. She said: 'The extra money in this spending review has already been accounted for in the last forecast. 'But a weaker economic outlook and the unfunded changes to winter fuel payments mean the Chancellor will likely need to look again at tax rises in the autumn.' Speaking after delivering her spending review, Ms Reeves insisted she would not have to raise taxes to cover her spending review. She told GB News: 'Every penny of this is funded through the tax increases and the changes to the fiscal rules that we set out last autumn.' Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described rising health spending as a 'conundrum', with a similar approach having been taken 'again and again' as she spoke at a business conference in central London on Thursday morning. In reference to a pro-Brexit campaign stunt, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I mean, who remembers the side of a red bus that said 'we're going to give the NHS £350 million more a week'? 'Many people don't know that we did that. We did do that, and yet, still we're not seeing the returns. 'We've put more and more money in, and we're getting less and less out.' The Government have not explained how and why the NHS will be better as a result of its spending plans, the Tory leader added, and claimed the public know 'we need to start talking about productivity reforms, public sector reforms'.
