Chippy fears demolition job
ESTABLISHED BUSINESSES ROCKED BY PROPOSAL TO CLEAR PREMISES TO MAKE WAY FOR APARTMENTS
A FAMILY chip shop owner in Arnold said he would be ‘gutted’ to move after learning of plans to demolish the building.
The proposal for 135-141 Front Street involves the creation of nine one or two-bedroom apartments as well as a ground level commercial unit after the demolition of four high street shops.
Bambos Charalambous, 50, owns Blue Circles Fish Bar, and his family have ran the shop since
1990 and he said they were shocked by the proposal.
He said: “I would be absolutely gutted if we had to move.
“I have nothing else, my family and me have put an incredible amount of work and effort into running this business, from this shop.
“We’ve ran this shop since 1990, my dad owned it, then my uncle and then I bought into the business. I have 15 kids and most of them have worked here or would have worked here in the future.
“It’s really surprised me, we didn’t know until recently when everyone else found out, I have no idea what is going to happen next.
“It would be a shame to have to move from a place where we have so many memories and have put in everything, we don’t know if we’ll be able to stay.
“And I think, or at least hope, that Arnold would not be happy with it either if we move out of Front Street.”
Staff at neighbouring business, the Front St Cafe, have also been left questioning their future.
Manager Ramazan Goksal, 37, said: “We do not know what we are going to do next really, it’s made everything uncertain.
“We don’t know how this is going to go and that isn’t really helpful for us, we have been here for three years now and would definitely prefer to stay here.
“The affect on our loyal customers if we moved would be bad. We need to talk the landlord to see if we could maybe stay here and get a good offer.”
The application, submitted to Gedling Council by Michael Zucker, is pending review.