Café Patisserie in Bradford will close due to crime, it says

A POPULAR café based on the site of a historic Bradford pub claims it has been forced to close due to criminality in the area.

Café Patisserie announced it would be leaving its Barkerend Road premises, which used to house the well-known Cock and Bottle pub, this Sunday.

The business, which offers fresh food, desserts and coffee, revealed the news on its Facebook page, late on Monday evening.

The post said: “With a heavy heart we are informing you that we will no longer be trading from our current location.

“Our last day of trading will be ‪this Sunday - August 30‬.”

There was an outpouring of sadness on social media, in response to the news.

One person said: "Such sad news, I hope you find a better location with the same ambience you had here."

Another commenter added: "We should support local business rather than destroy it. Sad day for Bradford. You will be missed by many."

A number of reasons for shutting up shop were given in the post, with much focus placed on alleged crime in the area.

The post said: "Most of our regular customers will be aware of the troubles we have had to overcome to trade from here.

"We have had a number of break-ins and vandalism at the cafe, and in the last couple of years a number of customers‘ cars have been broken into, and sadly a couple of our customers and staff members have been the target of muggings in the car park."

Councillor Hassan Khan (Lab, Bowling and Barkerend) was sad to hear the business would be vacating the premises.

But he outlined that there are processes in place to try tackle crime.

He said: "If they felt there was crime they should have contacted the police.

"It's an eye-catching place, so I don't know how crime is taking place there.

"Before the pandemic we had neighbourhood forums every three months, for people to attend and if you have any problems they could raise it.

"Not many people attended.

"If we can help with anything, because we work together with the police, we support them.

"Lots of people from the local area have benefitted."

Café Patisserie explained in its post on Facebook that it had in fact put in place measures to try and deal with the problem over the past few years.

The business changed its trading hours from closing at 10pm on an evening, to 6pm instead.

The post added: "We took measures to curb the burglaries by installing CCTV but this made the lowlife even more determined to commit even more blatant crime."

Café Patisserie says it has also had issues with drug and waste litter.

The post states: "Everyday for the last three years when we have come to open up each morning, the car park is littered with drug paraphernalia and things of that sort.

"To make matters worse we share the property with the flats above - and we tire of clearing their rubbish for fear people will think it was produced by ourselves.

"Sadly the property is situated in a location where drugs and crime is at its highest - a situation which we can no longer bare.

"The safety of our customers and staff is absolutely paramount and we are no longer prepared to compromise on this matter.

"We thought long and hard but to finish operating here is the only way forward for Cafe Patisserie.

"We will leave this property with a heavy heart as it’s a grand old place, but in totally the wrong location."

This is not the end for Café Patisserie though.

The business has yet to find new premises, but is continuing to look and has "toyed" with the idea of doing pop-up restaurants in and around the Bradford area.

The post said: "You can rest assured we will be back very soon - bigger and better and in a less stressful environment.

"We would personally like to thank all our customers, who are like family, for their continuing support over the last 10 years.

"Your appetites give us the appetite to continue - and that is exactly what we intend to do.

"Please keep an eye on our Instagram and Facebook pages for the most up to-date news.

"We look forward to welcoming you to our new restaurant soon."

West Yorkshire Police were contacted for comment but did not respond in time.

The T&A also asked Bradford Council for a response, but it declined to comment.