Cathedral café may never open again as difficult decisions made
Jobs look to be at risk, as Chichester Cathedral this week revealed plans to consult with staff on wholesale changes, including the permanent closure of its popular café. The coronavirus pandemic has presented ‘unforeseen challenges’ for the ‘entirely financially independent’ cathedral, which has been left with a lower annual income, due to lockdown restrictions.
Chichester Cathedral’s popular café looks set to close permanently due to the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.
The pandemic has presented ‘unforeseen challenges’ for the cathedral which is ‘entirely financially independent’.
Despite revealing plans to open its doors on June 15 for ‘private prayer and reflection’ — following guidance from the Government for churches from the Church of England — the cathedral has announced plans for significant changes, with a six-week consultation phase set to begin with staff members.
“We have made the difficult decision to propose that we do not re-open the café once lockdown is eased,” read the statement, from The Very Reverend Stephen Waine, the Dean of Chichester, and communar and executive director David Coulthard,
“The café makes a modest profit in a good year with the better summer months subsidising the winter months. We would be unlikely to reopen, at the earliest, until part way through the summer, and our customer numbers would be significantly reduced for many months, resulting in significant financial loss.”
Chichester Cathedral said the closure of the café and the ability to provide catering will also impact on its events.
The statement added: “We are proposing that we do not re-open the shop until the cathedral is able to accept a significant volume of visitors and social distancing is relaxed which we do not envisage is likely to happen before late in the year at the earliest. When the time is right, the shop will be reopened and re-located into the cathedral.
“There will be an impact on our office team as a simpler approach to the delivery of our commercial activities (café, events, hospitality and retail) will be required.”
The cathedral said it also made the ‘difficult decision’ to propose that we ‘cease the current work’ of the learning and engagement team.
The cathedral said it was also unlikely to be able to welcome school visits ‘in the foreseeable future’, due to restricted school budgets and the challenge of social distancing in transportation.
“We are telling you this because you play a vital part in the cathedral community,” the statement continued.
“We recognise that these are very difficult times for everyone involved and we want to assure you that we are working closely with the individuals affected by these changes, and offering support.”
The cathedral said it welcomed the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, and has been grateful for the financial support that it and other schemes have provided, but said it will still be left with lower annual income.
The statement added: “Despite [financial] support, and having halted all but essential expenditure within this period of lockdown, we forecast that in this year and next the cathedral will expend a lot of its reserves – well over £1m across its funds – as a direct result of lost income caused by the pandemic.
“As a result, we believe it is right to propose changes. Our reflections on what should come next have been based on both our financial outlook and the need to refocus our priorities to meet the challenges of the future.”