Cafe Culture is Set to Boom in Gloucester

This past year has seen a turn for the worse for cafe owners as many regions up and down the country including some boroughs in London, have decided to charge in some respects a small fortune for them to place outdoor furniture outside their cafe or other establishment. This is not the case in Gloucester however as the proposal for a meeting next week suggests that they will leave the licences for A boards at £50 per year and continue to allow the outdoor cafe furniture such as cafe tables and cafe chairs to be placed in the city centre free of charge.

As you would probably expect, many of the cafe owners are backing the proposal as it would mean that they may be able to keep their prices the same throughout the summer months. Stanman's Kitchen owner Nicky Wildin is just one of the business owners that is all for the proposal:

"Keeping the costs as they are is essential. Some of our suppliers have already been forced to up the price of certain products to offset the increasing price of fuel. So if we had to pay for tables and chairs, our customers would ultimately feel the brunt of that as we would have no option but to raise some prices to compensate.?

Licences to place cafe tables and cafe chairs including aluminium outdoor furniture outside have been free since 2009 as councillors wanted to encourage the cafe culture in the city by helping businesses to create an environment outside with cafe furniture to increase the size of their business and pull in the tourists.

The proposal has not been carried forward yet, however it can be safe to assume that the cafe culture in Gloucester will remain strong.