Himley Park cafe anger as Dudley Council opens rival
The long-running Log Cabin Cafe at Himley Park is under threat of losing vital customers because the council has opened a rival cafe, the owners claim.
Alan and Margaret Baker have run the cafe by the golf centre at Himley for decades but are now furious at Dudley Council for opening up their own coffee shop at the park.
Landlords Dudley Council opened The Coffee Lounge in the historic hall in April, which Mrs Baker said is drawing customers away from her cafe which sits by the golf course they lease from the council.
A customer has started a petition for The Coffee Lounge to be closed, which so far has 3,000 signatures.
Margaret Baker said: “My husband went there 40 years ago and won a tender to buy a golf course and we’ve built up a successful business with the course.
"They said at the beginning of the year they were going to open a room in the hall and sell the exact same food as I was.
"This is vital revenue to the golf course and we pay them.
“All you will do if you carry on with this is damage the business paying the council thousands of pounds every month.
"One of my customers has started a petition and we’ve got 3,000 signatures.
"We can’t believe they would do this. They’re our landlords."
Mrs Baker said the rival cafe had done ‘so much’ advertising over the park, which can be viewed from the windows of her cabin.
“We’ve asked them to do different food. I’ve seen a real drop in sales because anyone who wanted anything to eat, they came to the Log Cabin.
“We’ve reached more than 3,000 signatures because people know what we’ve put into the business.”
Councillor Keiran Casey, cabinet member responsible for tourism, said: “Both cafes offer something very different to visitors to Himley Hall and park, something we worked hard to ensure in the early stages of planning the new café at Himley Hall.
“We made a number of changes to our original business proposals, such as the difficult decision not to allow dogs in the hall, to minimise the impact on the existing café in the grounds of the park.
"Thousands of people visit Himley Hall every year, more than enough for both businesses, but we would always welcome discussions with the cafe to look at any concerns.”
The petition is in paper at the cafe and online at Change.org and search for Himley Hall Golf Centre Cafe.
