No decision made on The Larder repairs as former café gets temporary use

Scaffolding was erected outside the former Larder cafe earlier this year. Pic: Blog Preston

Investigations are still ongoing into the safety of the city centre buildings which housed The Larder cafe.

Scaffolding has been erected outside the Lancaster Road café during recent months but no decision has yet been made on the next steps, Preston City Council told Blog Preston.

The cafe was home to social enterprise The Larder from 2019 until January of this year but the occupancy ended in a bitter war of words between the authority and the cafe’s management, with each making accusations against the other.

Kay Johnson, who operated The Larder, said the council had failed to support its operation and worked against its success, while the authority’s deputy leader councillor Martyn Rawlinson said the lease conditions were not met and the building was left in an usable state.

Since then, scaffolding has been erected and enough work has taken place to allow the building – opposite the Town Hall – to be used as a base for those building the nearby Youth Zone project.

A council spokesperson told Blog Preston: “The scaffolding was erected as part of mitigation works due to health and safety concerns with the roof of the property. Investigations are ongoing and a decision on the level of works to be completed within funding limits is due in the near future.

“It is currently let to contractors working on the Youth Zone project.”

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