Petition launched to reopen Babilicious in St Leonards, East Sussex

In this video, owner Barbara Brett explains what's happend so far.

Transcript

00:00 So basically I set up Babalicious because I was doing take away during lockdown and

00:07 I wanted a space where people could come get a coffee, which was working great, it was

00:11 brilliant, it was amazing. But obviously due to what happened with the building, unfortunately

00:17 I've had to close my cafe at the moment. But the reason I set the cafe up is because it's

00:22 affordable for people, so I didn't hike my prices up. Basically I wanted something where

00:27 people could come, have a walk, meet up, have a chat, it was a community hub, but I tried

00:32 to make it affordable for people. So as long as I made enough money to be able to cover

00:37 my costs and buy my goods so I could serve to people, that's what I did. And it worked

00:43 well and I love it and I really miss it. One of my customers has set up a petition to basically

00:48 try and understand what's going to happen in the future and whether there's a chance

00:53 I can reopen here because there is nowhere down here I can rent another unit. Unfortunately

00:58 there's nothing from the car park down where I could actually move into and open my business.

01:04 I don't want a shed because of the weather, but the council seemed to build everything

01:09 from the pier down and nothing this way, so there is no other viable space I could move

01:15 into to continue my business, unfortunately. The reason it's good as a community hub, it's

01:20 great for people's mental health, it's great for people that can't walk far, they've got

01:25 access from the ramp coming down from the car park, they've also got access to the beach,

01:29 they've got access to the toilets. So the reason it works so well is because it's easy

01:34 accessible for everybody to get to, to sit and have a chat, to meet up. Sometimes it

01:38 would be an hour, sometimes they would come down with their family, but that's why it's

01:42 so good.

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