The Sea Change Café, on Ocean Road in South Shields, is facing closure following a £20,000 backdated energy bill, as well as monthly costs rising by around 400%.
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00:00 Obviously we knew costs were going up, I hadn't had a metre reading for a while
00:05 so we expected it maybe to be a little bit more, but not as dramatic as what it was.
00:12 So first sort of thoughts were, you know, like oh gosh I think we're going to have to close,
00:18 we're not going to be able to pay that back.
00:20 And then with the monthly costs rising as well, like nearly 400%,
00:25 it was just a panic really, we didn't know what we were going to do.
00:30 It's not easy to just find another job for somebody who's neurodiverse with an additional need
00:37 and that is why we actually set up in the first place,
00:40 just so we could actually show that if we're supporting the right way, what people can achieve.
00:47 Yeah, they are all worried and I had to be honest with them because I didn't want to stress them out,
00:54 in the same way I wanted to be honest to let them know that, you know, actually this could happen
01:00 and it's out of our control.
01:03 But yeah, it would have a massive impact on them, like a negative impact.
01:10 It is worrying but we're doing what we can to make sure that we stay.
01:14 For small businesses, it's just, I don't know, with other things going up as well,
01:20 everything's gone up, obviously people have less money, so customers have gone down.
01:26 And just, yeah, I really think that for small businesses because you just see them closing all of the time
01:32 in different areas and you just can't, we can't do it.
01:37 I didn't mention the energy bill at first actually, it was just, you know, like overheads rising,
01:42 we are at risk of closure because of that.
01:45 And then the BBC came out at the weekend and they asked how much it was and that's what I said.
01:52 And then, obviously from then it was just, you know, like a massive sort of wave of support,
01:58 saying, you know, like do a crowd funder and, you know, we want to support you, we want to donate.
02:03 So we did, the staff team just are so happy and so grateful that the community is behind us
02:12 and not just the local community, we've had donations from down south to Aberdeen,
02:18 just so many messages of support and help.
02:22 Yeah, I never dreamt that we would get the amount of reach that we have.
02:30 It's really just honestly so appreciative of it.
02:33 The customers have been so good. I mean, obviously there's been delays,
02:37 we've obviously got a new menu, it's a reduced menu, but it's a new one.
02:41 So the team are, you know, getting used to that.
02:44 So there has been a few delays and, you know, I had a power cut, I had a grill go off,
02:51 but, you know, they plodded through, they did amazing, they're working really hard.
02:56 And yeah, it's just great. I hope it continues. I hope people keep coming.