Read more at https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/businesses-at-bexhills-colonnade-face-eviction-5048690
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00:00Last May, we were told by the council that the colonnade would be closed for a six-month
00:06refurb and we, at that point, were asking if we could come back to our shops after the
00:13refurb and were told there was no reason why we couldn't come back.
00:18Then in the middle of February, we were told that the kiosk would be marketed and we could
00:24reapply for our own shops, but we were still fair enough with that.
00:30And then at the end of February, we got told that because of devolution, the council couldn't
00:36give us any guarantee that the colonnade would be reopened in its current form or when it
00:43would be reopened.
00:46So we have been in limbo.
00:49We don't know what's going to happen.
00:52We're reaching out to potential new landlords because Rother isn't going to exist.
00:59We were told there were three options for people to take over, potentially organisations
01:05to take over.
01:07One was Bexhill Town Council, one was East Sussex Council and one was the Delaware Pavilion.
01:16So what we're now trying to do is reach out to them and reach out to Rother to say, does
01:24the colonnade need vacant possession for those organisations to take over or could we still
01:35be here as tenants?
01:37Because if we reach out to the people who are potentially going to be our new landlords
01:41and they say we would prefer that there were still tenants in the colonnade, then we're
01:47not caught in this limbo waiting for devolution to happen, which could be months.
01:55The colonnade could be closed for years, by which time we might even be retired before
02:00we come back to work.
02:02So yeah, that's the position at the moment.
02:05Sonia and I have both been here for 13 years.
02:09We were part of the original pop-up.
02:12So that was in October 2011 and then we relaunched with the first wave of people that were in
02:22here and that was June 2012.
02:25So we've been here trading ever since.
02:28We're here all year round.
02:29There are some weather conditions that mean that we can't be here.
02:33We're devastated.
02:34We're absolutely devastated and really unsure as to what the future holds.
02:40We were hoping to have a six month plus pop-up shop if we were able to come back, but now
02:49we're in a position where we may not return.
02:52So we're in limbo and we don't know what to do.
02:55So we're reaching out to as many people as we possibly can who have any kind of influence
03:01or who could work collaboratively together to try and get this issue resolved.
03:09It's totally counterproductive for the colonnade to be left empty and I'm sure that that's
03:15not what anybody wants, but that is what we fear.