Shop surrenders to council regulations (From Gazette Series)

Shop surrenders to council regulations

A POPULAR sweet shop in Dursley has been forced to close its doors.

Sweet Surrender, in Silver Street, closed on Saturday because money could not be found to make it conform to health and safety regulations.

And because the shop, opened by Dale Corbitt in March 2003, is neither just a shop or a youth venue, he would have also had to apply for planning permission to convert his licence.

Mr Corbitt told the Gazette there were three reasons he had to close the shop.

He said: "The first reason was that adults don't mix with children well. When we moved up here we had two rooms for children to use, and adults stopped coming in. The second problem was that they opened a skate park in Cam and we lost about £400 a week. It was a real blow but we thought we could survive that, as there were plenty of children in and out all the time.

"Then the health and safety team from the district council came in and said that we weren't a retail outlet, we were a mixed use outlet with a youth centre. I told them that it was a retail outlet but they wouldn't have it.

"They gave us a list of things we had to do because we were a youth centre and it would cost about £2,500. We were given the impression that once that was done there would be more to come.

"We also had a visit from the planning department who said that we needed to have planning permission for a mixed used outlet and we had to pay for it, and if we didn't get permission they would close us down."

Mr Corbitt said the popularity of the shop was down to the fact that children of all ages and from different schools could mix together.

He continued: "We had about 50 children who lived in here. It was not the sweets, it was the fact that children of 13 and 14 could mix with older people without any problems. It was a safe environment. We had music playing and it was a fun place. I do think it will be sadly missed.

"But I am hoping to have another project. We think we have found something and we are in negotiations with the owners."

Dursley's rector, the Rev Janet Bromley, said: "It was a safe place for children to be and it was a shame it had to end like this. I much admired Dale's relationship with the children and he catered for their needs."

Phil Park, principal environmental health officer at the district council, said officers had inspected the premises and had written to the proprietor expressing concerns on various issues.

He added that he was unable to comment any further.