Businessman slams landlords as they seek to evict him from Trawsfynydd cafe

A BUSINESSMAN who claims to have spent over £45,000 reopening a lakeside cafe has slammed his landlords, for trying to terminate his lease over “trivial technicalities”.

Essex businessman Colin Dale took over the tenancy of the former Trawsfynydd nuclear power station social club last year as part of wider plans to attract more tourists to the Snowdonia village by reopening the old railway line to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

These plans saw him take over the social club and convert it into a cafe, in addition to planning a boat cruise business on Trawsfynydd Lake, and the ambitious proposals to open a new heritage railway on the disused line.

But Mr Dale says these plans are now in danger of being thwarted, after the cafe’s landlords, community regeneration company Trawsnewid, sought to terminate his 14 year lease and evict him, claims strenuously denied by Trawsnewid.

Mr Dale said: “I have spent over £45,000 on this project over the past two years, and all with the intention of bringing investment to the area and attracting more visitors.

“I’ve employed 16 local people during that time, and up until a few months ago all was well with the cafe project.

“Then, for some reason, I received legal papers from Trawsnewid, primarily their secretary Isgoed Williams, stating I was being evicted. The company claim that I’m in breach of my tenancy for a variety of trivial reasons, one of which is that I’ve sub-let a storage unit to someone, even though it was actually Trawsnewid who organised this!

“The boat which I was planning to start the lake tours with was never fit for the water either, despite it being part of the lease and their responsibility, so it’s clear to me that they are just trying to get me out so they can lease it to someone else.

“I’ve spent my own money on this, and I have to ask the question why are they doing this? The building was empty for nine years before I came here.

“It should be a resource for the whole community, I hope it still can be, and I hope we can all come to a satisfactory conclusion.

“You can’t just evict anyone on a whim.”

Trawsnewid’s secretary Isgoed Williams angrily refuted Mr Dale’s allegations, stating: “In creating this situation for himself Mr Dale will lose what has been prepared for him by Trawsnewid.

“It was Trawsnewid which spent almost £100,000 in bringing the social club up to standard.

“Mr Dale’s unreasonable behaviour will be the reason why he pushes himself out, and not Trawsnewid. I want nothing to do with him.”