KINDHEARTED BUILDER REPAIRS VANDAL-HIT TEAROOM FOR FREE
Relieved manager feared the cost of fixing up the community hub could have led to it closing
TEAROOM staff have been left delighted after a builder repaired their vandalised roof – for free.
The roof of Aynsley Tearoom in Longton Park, which supports people with learning difficulties, was damaged last week when vandals climbed onto the roof, dislodging several tiles.
When 34-year-old builder Dan Ayres, from Blythe Bridge, above, heard about the incident, he immediately offered his services and repaired the damaged roof free of charge.
Manager Teresa Slizewskiwhalley, aged 47, said: “With the current situation with coronavirus, we obviously haven’t been able to open at full capacity.
“If we’d had to pay to have this roof repaired, it could have been the end of us.
“Dan has just given us this opportunity to carry on what we’re doing here with the students, we just cannot thank him enough.”
She added: “It’s a bit overwhelming. It’s like one extreme of a person to another really, in a couple of days you know.”
Describing why he acted so generously, Dan said: “It’s about giving back isn’t it sometimes? There’s a lot of rubbish in the world at the minute with covid and everything else that’s going on, so why not.
“If you can help someone out, why not help somebody out? It isn’t all about making money, it’s about helping people.”
He added: “It hasn’t cost me that much money really. All I’ve had to pay for is the tiles, and then my time.
“My time’s nothing if it means getting the cafe back up and running for the elderly and all the people who use it.
“This vandalism is just a nuisance. They have something built for the community that actually helps the community, and then you have idiots doing stuff like this.”
Dan estimated the work, which took about four hours to complete, would have cost £500 under normal circumstances.