West Point: Leeds bars and restaurants say scaffolding has left them ‘virtually invisible’ and is ‘destroying’ business

Businesses operating at West Point – a development which includes apartments and is based between Wellington Street and Whitehall Road – have said footfall is down significantly and claim they have made huge losses since it was first put in place in April.

Various businesses are based at the ground floor of the building, which is several storeys high.

The scaffolding covers up the majority of the frontages and, as a result, bars including Lazy Lounge, Leeds Postal Service, Toast and The Whitehall all say they have lost customers who are either put off or assume that they’re closed.

It has been erected as part of “essential” work to remove cladding following a government-mandated policy change, made in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

West Point, formerly known as Royal Mail House, is owned by Rossington Homes Ltd.

The owner of Lazy Lounge and Leeds Postal Service, Tom Bailey, said there had been a 75 per cent decrease in footfall and that the impact had been “worse than Covid and the cost of living crisis”.

He told the YEP: “While we were already bracing for a tough road ahead, just as we had a glimmer of hope at the start of this year, we now face the most substantial obstacle to our trade, and it's truly disheartening to have been literally blocked from our customers.”

The bar owners have said they have appealed to the council, the landlord and to the government department that has ordered and funded the work to be carried out – Homes England – for financial support during the difficult period but that none had been forthcoming.

Mr Bailey, who has run Lazy Lounge for 16 years and opened Leeds Postal Service in 2018, said that half of everything the business had made since 2012 had been spent to keep it afloat as he grapples with going from making £15,000 a week to losing £3,000. He said that 10 members of staff had been made redundant and that he is working 80-hour weeks.

“£30,000 worth of parties" had cancelled due to the scaffolding, he said, and it had stopped people from sitting outside during the summer.

“It’s been soul destroying”, he said. “I’ve not paid myself a wage since the scaffolding went up which when you have a young family to feed is not great.

"I’ve been stressed to death and losing sleep.”

He said that he didn’t know if the business could survive much longer if the financial difficulties continued. He added: “It would be really hard if we survived Covid and the cost of living to then be closed by some scaffolding.”

Also feeling the impact was Fatjon Muca, the owner of The Whitehall Bar and Restaurant, who said that it had been a “constant battle” since he opened the venue nine months before the Covid pandemic hit.

He said: “I know we talk about how bad the pandemic was but at least we got some help from the government. It’s been 10 times harder to get through this.”

Mr Muca said that in the first month after the scaffolding went up sales were a staggering £45,000 down from the previous year. He said: “People thought we were closed or being refurbished.

"The building company refused to let us put signs up. How could they put this scaffolding up and not think of commercial properties?

"We are lucky that we had a good year, last year, and that we’re now heading into Christmas.”

It was a similar story at Toast, where general manager Jacob Georgallis said that business had fallen by 15 per cent compared to last year – the first time it had made a year-on-year loss, other than during the Covid months, since opening in 2017.

He said: “I had a really bad feeling when we were told it was going up before the summer. We had a good summer last year but one thing that could change that is sitting among a load of scaffolding.

"The frontage is supposed to entice customers in and if you lose that then you are bound to lose customers.”

Mr Georgallis said that they were able to erect hoardings outside the business but only with financial support from their suppliers, saying: “That’s something that we’ve been forced to do and should have got support for when the scaffolding went up.”

Mr Bailey and the other bar owners say they have asked the landlord to reduce the amount of rent they are paying.

But they claim they were told that this was not possible due to losses the landlord has incurred so that the compulsory cladding work can be completed.

Mr Bailey said: “They say that they are victims as well.”

They also said that requests for Homes England to provide funding for their losses were rejected.

The YEP understands the Government agency has put around £34m towards the cladding work at the site.

Mr Georgallis said: “It’s a government policy so why are they just palming us off?”

Mr Muca said: “It feels like we’re not being heard by anybody.”

It’s also understood that the work is not expected to be completed until the end of 2024.

A spokesperson for Homes England said that the “essential” work to address the cladding was funded through The Building Safety Fund, which went straight to the building owners.

They said: “With any remediation works, the work is the responsibility of, and completed by, the responsible entity and their team. Any arrangements or agreements about managing the impact on their commercial tenants is up to them.”

A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear about the impact of the cladding works, which is not a council project, and we have been providing advice and support to Lazy Lounge.

“This has included speaking to the developer about promoting businesses in the area using hoarding designs, along with providing information about other promotional opportunities and guidance on small business rates relief.”

The YEP contacted Rossington Homes Ltd but they declined to comment.