As our petition approaches 10,000 supporters, the Daily Mail has reported on the dispute with the Church today with the headline “Historic cafe in heart of Oxford faces battle to survive”...
As you will read, the Mail reports on the history of the dispute between Will Pouget and the Vicar, the Revd Canon Will Lamb, and the Church’s redevelopment plans for the cafe which they plan to run themselves as a “social enterprise”.
The Mail says a spokesman for the parochial church council stated “the cafe was in urgent need of attention and must be redeveloped to reduce any potential harm to this ancient historic building”.
But the Mail also reports that “the plans come after a multi-million pound renovation of the church - including more than £3.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund - that was completed in 2013.”
The Mail says that the previous vicar, the Revd Canon Brian Mountford, said at the time “that the renovation would ‘see St Mary’s through the next fifty years.'"
According to the Mail, the church council claim that there had been “prolonged attempts by the PCC to achieve an amicable resolution with the current licensee proposed in 2018 for a revised licence fee” but this had been refused by Will Pouget."
But the Mail also reports Will Pouget’s response that the Church put pressure on him to pay an inflated rent during the Pandemic when “the finances of the company were in tatters”. And they also report that the Church is currently receiving rent of more than £100,000 a year.
The report also includes comments about the cafe from customers, including Mark Pyper, former headmaster of Gordonstoun school where King Charles was educated and the author, Rebecca Kuang, writer of the best-selling novel, Babel.
Mark Pyper wrote: “I write with horror matched only by despair, on learning that the Vicar and Church Council of the University Church of St Mary are expelling with virtually no notice the current tenants of the Vaults cafe, which has provided a wonderful service for 20 years to its clients, both Oxford residents and visitors, many of whom are thereby drawn to visit the church itself.”
Rebecca Kuang wrote: “The Vaults & Garden is near and dear to my heart and without doubt my favourite place in Oxford. I am devastated to imagine an Oxford without V&G and I hope very much a compromise can be found.”
We thank all of you who have supported our petition and especially the nearly 400 of you who have contributed more than £3,000 to boosting this campaign. Please circulate this update to your friends and colleagues on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter and urge them to sign.
team@savethevaults.com