Cafe forced to close after 'waiting for repairs for over two years'

A POPULAR café in Droitwich has been forced to close after the owner claims their landlord failed to carry out crucial repair work.

Hannah Bloor, who runs The Button Tree in Tagwell Road, Droitwich, announced the cafe will close its doors on Saturday, July 27.

She moved into the building in January 2021 but said she started noticing problems with the windows later that year and first contacted her landlord about it in November.

She claims that much of the wood around the windows has rotted away while temporary supports are holding up both windows as buckets collect dripping water.

Temporary supports are holding up the rotting wood (Image: Kieran Williams, Newsquest)

Button Tree barista Zoe Taylor said:  "Hannah wanted the windows done by last summer.

"The landlord wanted us to close part of the café where the windows are and use a polythene strip to separate the open part in the dead of winter. It would be freezing cold.

"The heating has not worked for ages either."

A spokesperson for GJS Dillon, the managing agent of the property, said it was unable to comment for privacy reasons.

The wooden frames around the window are badly damaged (Image: Kieran Williams, Newsquest)

In a Facebook post, Miss Bloor said: "As many of you know my windows have needed repairing for the last 2.5 years. It's gone on and on and they've got worse and worse.

"So 6 months ago I decided to only pay half the original rent.

"It's been decided that the 'issue' is the 'other half' of the six months rent I 'owe' and they don't think the issue is the dangerous rotten windows that I first started emailing about in 2021."

Read more: Droitwich residents without water after pipe bursts

Read more: Plans for Droitwich Sainsbury's and Costa development

Having only paid half the rent, The Button Tree has weeks until it closes, either temporarily or for good, as Miss Taylor said: "We need somewhere else.

"We need to find somewhere suitable in Droitwich.

"We've got a lot of regular customers that are disappointed and not all of them are on Facebook so haven't seen the post."

The spokesperson for GJS Dillon said: "This is an ongoing matter and as such we are bound to protect both our client's and the tenant's privacy."