A CAFÉ owner in Worcester has said he is ‘concerned for his business’ after the city council rejected his application to provide outdoor seating to serve customers.

Francini Osorio, the owner of Francini Cafe De Colombia coffee shop in Angel Place in the city centre, paid £100 to submit an application to Worcester City Council so he could provide seating on the pavement outside the front of his café for customers after lockdown restrictions were eased last Monday, April 12.

The application was rejected by the city council, which cited the ‘safety of pedestrians’ on the pavement as the primary reason.

Mr Osorio said: “I sent the council an application and pictures to show how the benches outside were going to look, and the pictures show we are not blocking anything in and it’s just to allow us to bring some more customers into the business. The decision is affecting my business big time and I’m panicking at the moment, because I want to be able to stay open for as long as I can.”

The Worcester café has provided a takeaway service throughout much of the pandemic, but Mr Osorio said he doesn’t know why customers can’t sit in the outside area he has earmarked after sending the pictures to the council.

“I think it’s unfair,” he said. “We are in a situation where we have been struggling like every single human being on this planet over the last year, and sometimes you need to be more flexible.

“It’s only a couple of benches and stools that we want to have outside so I can have some more customers at my business and stay open.

“It feels like everyone can take advantage of this seating but me - I pay taxes like everybody else, so I feel like I should be allowed to have a little bit of freedom to keep my business going.

“I don’t know why they can’t make an exception for a few weeks, or at least give me another option, but they didn’t even give me options.”

Non-essential shops throughout the country reopened their doors last Monday as we entered Step two of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.

Under the new rules, pubs, restaurants and cafes are allowed to reopen outdoors.

Indoor seating will be allowed from May 17, although customers will only be allowed to be with one other household or in be in a group of six.

Mr Osorio added: “We may be able to recover the business when we are able to sit people inside, but having seating outside would give the business a little bit of a push.”

In response, a Worcester City Council spokesman said: “We have gone to great lengths to support the re-opening of city centre businesses and are pleased to have given licences for 23 cafes, bars and restaurants to have outside seating or extend the outside seating areas they already had – helping to ensure Worcester is leading the way in the country’s economic recovery.

“The safety of pedestrians is the biggest consideration for pavement licences, and we need to ensure there is sufficient space for people to be able to get past outside seating areas with prams, pushchairs and wheelchairs without needing to step into the road. Where that is that not possible, we have no choice but to turn down a licence application.”