After a swift but relentless social media campaign a Ferry bakery business now stands to recoup their losses from the council. The Dune Bakery said that they were £70,000 out of pocket after a deal with the council came to an abrupt halt,
In one post on Instagram Dune Bakery said: “The council screwed us over and we need your help to pester them into submission or we are going to lose a devastating amount of money
“I just wanna make clear this isn’t a planning permission issue: they put it on the market, I applied, we agreed terms, we negotiated lease and deposit, they pulled it.”
Other people on social media asked for a script that they could then send to the council to support him.
The Edinburgh Reporter understands that Heads of Terms had been drafted between Lewis Gill of Dune Bakery and the council, but within the last day or two the council decided to pull out of the lease. Asked if there was a binding contract with the council, Mr Gill admitted it is a bit of a grey area “where they’ve given you reason to believe that everything’s going smoothly, and then they pull at the very last second.”
The business already operates in South Queensferry, and Mr Gill said that they have been working on a deal with The City of Edinburgh Council to lease premises at 31 The Loan as a multi-purpose unit for some time. He told The Edinburgh Reporter that he had already spent £20,000 in planning and legal fees, and that he had engaged a contractor to do the remodelling but work had not yet begun, and the first payment of £50,000 had not yet been incurred.
Mr Gill believed that they had an entry date for Monday 27 October when they would get the keys and start work to convert the space. In answer to one of the council’s demands he lodged a planning application with the council on 23 September accompanied by drawings created by an interior architect. But the planning application has not yet been granted according to the council planning portal. A valid permission to use the premises as a restaurant would, we are advised, have been a prerequisite of the deal proceeding.
Mr Gill said: “We had heads of terms agreed, and we had a date of entry that we were working towards. We were looking to sign the lease on 23 or 24 and were to be in on 27th.”
However all may yet be resolved. A council spokesperson said: “We’re grateful to the Dune Bakery for their interest in leasing this space and are sorry we’re not able to take this forward. We’ve written to the business to apologise and explain – and have offered to cover the costs they’ve incurred to date.”
