29 January 2024

To whom it may concern

In response to the letter opposing the alcohol licence for cafe coco, I would like to address the concerns raised.

I would like to convey that the main purpose for extending the hours of business is for serving food not for drinking alcohol. This would be only to enhance the customer experience by having a glass of wine or 2 with a meal. The emphasis of the business is a cafe and not a drinking establishment. The clientele that we have, tend to be elderly residents and families. This will not change by extended our hours a few nights a week. We will not be promoting or allowing access to groups of teenagers. A strict under 25 id will be in place and the poice conditions have been fully met.

We would like to keep the relaxed cafe vibe so music will be kept low and customers will be notified to respect the residents when leaving and keep noise levels to a minimum.

To reassure with regards to the mental health issue. There are only 8 small seats outside that do not block access to anyone. We have installed high spec CCTV that covers all areas inside and out of our premises. I understand that we are the only venue on the parade with this. By having the cafe opening later this will make the area brighter and discourage youths from hanging around outside, as they do when it’s dark and all closed up.

I passed on my number twice to JRHT to pass on and to state that they are welcome to call into the cafe so that I could reassure that our intentions were not to cause distress. But unfortunatley, this didn’t happen.

I believe the shop next door has recently been granted a licence to sell off premises, I would imagine this would have more opportunity for anti-social behaviour in the evenings than a cafe.

Other residents in the area have expressed their excitement in having somewhere nice to go in the evenings. Hopefully this letter has manged to help reassure that our intention is to bring the community together and not cause a nuisance to our neighbours, we all be welcome for nearby residents to call in and discuss any future concerns.

Kind regards

Mary