AN ANGRY resident is complaining that a retirement complex has been without a cafe for three months, causing people to ‘struggle.’

However the housing group has defended itself saying they have been desperately trying to find new caterers since the previous traders ‘abandoned’ them.

Joan Freshwater, 62, who lives at Cherry Orchard House, an independent living residency in Pershore said: “We have been promised a cafe and they said they would get people in immediately, and three months later we still don’t have one. There’s lots of disabled people here and it’s been terrible.”

Mrs Freshwater said there are people who relied on the cafe for their main meals.

A spokesman from Rooftops Housing Group said: “3 Months ago the people with the contract to run the café at Cherry Orchard House in Pershore (a separate business from Rooftop) abandoned without giving notice. This was a huge shock to everyone involved, and caused a delay in finding a replacement business to take on the café. There would normally be a period of tendering and interviewing that couldn’t happen until the previous abandoned business had been cleared up.”

“We have had expressions of interest to run the café, and on Thursday 22nd the residents were scheduled to meet with the new business owners who had offered to take on the task. Despite promising to meet residents to discuss their menus and prices, they pulled out without notice, saying that they couldn’t make enough money out of our residents. This is immensely disappointing for all concerned: Rooftop is providing state of the art catering facilities at no cost and charging a peppercorn rent to support the café to provide a much needed facility for older people.”

The statement continued: “We can’t put just anyone into a business that caters for vulnerable people, there has to be interviews and checks. We and the residents were let down by the previous caterers, and we have now been let down again. If there are any Journal Readers trained in catering and who would like to run the Café at Cherry Orchard please get in contact with patricia.dearnaley@rooftopgroup.org”

“We are entirely aware that some residents are having difficulties at this time and our caterer from our scheme in Broadway, and our care providers, are pulling together to help us to work with residents to make their lives easier until a new business can be found. We have written to all of our residents to update them, and to answer any questions.”