Vegan trader blasts greedy Council as she quits market

The Plant Academy is being forced out of Southport market by greedy money grabbing sefton Council bosses.

Plant Academy Owner Ellie Richards-Johnson has issued an emotional blog post saying she has been forced to give up her popular vegan plant themed restaurant because her rent has gone up to an eye watering £17,000 a year.

She said “For our first year here in the Indoor Market, we were on a reduced rent. This along with the low start up cost in the market, and the short term lease we could get was appealing when opening a vegan cafe for the first time in Southport’s history.

“I didn’t know how many vegans, vegetarians and open minded omnivores were in Southport and surrounding areas and I didn’t want to sign up for a 5 year lease that most Southport landlords were offering.

“However, to continue for a second year we would be paying over £17,000 per year in rent, service charge and VAT for our little unit in Southport Indoor Market.”

“As a small independent this is a tough target when you take in to account our higher than usual food cost (due to using mostly whole foods over cheap processed ingredients), staff costs, other costs that crop up and to try and pay ourselves.

“It’s not that I don’t think we could achieve this, as The Plant Academy has been very successful this year, but I don’t want to continue to work so extremely hard just to hand most of our money over to Sefton Council whilst paying ourselves very little.”

“The number of traders who have recently left the Indoor market, and those who are threatening to, makes that £17,000 number even more ridiculous to us. If you also think this is crazy, I’d let you local councillor know..”