A TOWN council should be ‘actively looking’ for a new provider for the community café.

At their monthly meeting Connah’s Quay council received an update on the Quay Café and plans to move forward with the facility.

It was recommended that councillors note the report and consider a new name for the facility.

However, Cllr Bernie Attridge said they should be actively looking for someone new to take over the building.

He said: “My concern is moving forward we all know what costing us to date and what we are taking in. Yes, what we are saying here, it should be high on a priority list. It’s good looking at how to improve it but since I raised it on two occasions, I haven’t had a list of who we spoke to.

“For myself, I’m one person, I think we need to be more actively looking, not just hoping someone comes. Before we go into any other agreement after the last debacle, we will be having proper legal advice. This is rate payer’s money.”

The Leader previously reported that failures by the town council resulted in a loss of £234,000 since the café opened in 2011.

According to the report issued by the Auditor General for Wales, the council did not give due consideration as to what powers it had to open the cafe and the decision was based on a poorly prepared business plan.

Last year, councillors discussed their options of what could be done, and they voted in favour of working on making it more a community asset.

However, Cllr Attridge suggested they also look for new owners.

At the February meeting, Cllr Alan Roberts said: “There’s a lot of change happening in that. What we are looking at now is implementing that.”

He went on to say the clerk is looking into contacting the current owners to see if they would transfer the lease to someone else but ‘at the moment it’s good for them’ to lease to the council.

He added: “The clerk is there making sure cash goes up and that’s what we’ve got to do.

“We’ve got to try and do what we can with it.”

The report given to members suggested changing the name in the future.

The reports states, the ‘facility was always intended to deliver a service to the local people’ and this will ‘continue to be the case over the coming months’.

It reads: “Staff who have been placed in the premises have been actively promoting what it can be used for, i.e that it us available to hire and can deliver a beneficial service to the local community.

“A booking form is now available for users to hire the venue, bringing it into line with the other venues.

“One hindrance is the name of the facility as it gives the impression that it is a café.”

The report gives suggestions on how improvements can be made, including providing hot food in partnership with a local charity and using the facility to provide catering for the town council’s other venues and facilities.

Clerk Steven Goodrum told members: “This is to reassure councillors it’s being done. It’s refocused what the café actually is and what it’s delivering to the community, that’s what ultimately, we need to prove.

“At some point council need to look at it and see if it’s worth going forward.

“There are things in the pipeline, but it would be unfair on them to name them now. It’s not something we aren’t looking at, but I need to give facts and figures for those if we do keep it and the implications for each of those.”