Hi all, 

When I first decided to set up a petition I wanted to use the Cardiff Council Petition Scheme so the issue would have to be considered by Council. 

I wrote to Cardiff Council's democratic services to ask if they would accept such a petition and could then agree wording with them. When they didn't reply (they still haven't replied) I used a change.org petition instead. 

I also wrote to the Cabinet Member for Culture, Parks, Events and Venues Cllr Burke who is also my Ward Councillor. 

I have received the attached letter from Cllr Burke and feel it is only right to share here in the interests of transparency. 

I used the wording 'eviction' in the original petition, having read the Councillor's letter I have changed this to 'Notice to Quit' as that is the correct legal term and I have added a note to explain. 

The letter also highlights that the lease was due to end 24th March 2023 which raises the question of why the tender process wasn't started in Q4 of 2022, this would have given Mel time to submit a bid and find out if she had been successful before having to given staff and suppliers notice. The Council seem to have failed to get a tender out at the appropriate time given it still hasn't been issued and is now due to be published in June.

I don't believe this changes the original purpose of the petition which was to ask Cardiff Council to re-enter lease negotiations and try and find a way to save this business.

Thanks for reading,

Pam