Caerphilly Council is looking for a new tenant for Coffi Vista, weeks after finalising the controversial decision to close the coffee shop down.

An advert with Cardiff-based property firm EJ Hales shows the council is seeking £16,500 in annual rent for the property, which is in a prominent location overlooking Caerphilly Castle.

The budget-saving proposal to shut Coffi Vista was met with strong opposition from people who said the site was more than a coffee shop and provided a valuable community asset for tackling loneliness and isolation.

But the council said it was spending £100,000 annually to effectively subsidise the current operations and could not justify that spending given wider budget pressures.

The campaign to save Coffi Vista earlier this year included a large demonstration outside the premises, and a petition signed by thousands of people.

The new advert for the Coffi Vista premises includes the building’s public toilets in its floorspace, and quotes the annual rent as £16,500.

Any new tenant would also expect to pay around £10,500 in business rates in the next financial year, after Welsh Government discounts have been applied.

The advert also states Caerphilly Council is seeking expressions of interest in the property, by way of an informal tender process, by midday on Wednesday May 1.

A rally calling for the centre to be saved was attended by hundreds in January.
Leader of Plaid Cymru Caerphilly Group councillor Lindsay Whittle led the rally where hundreds were in attendance, including Senedd Members Peredur Owen Griffiths MS and Delyth Jewell MS.

South Wales Argus: Hundreds turned out to protest against the closure of the coffee shop and gallery (Image: Phillip Nifield, Plaid Cymru Councillors Press Officer)Hundreds turned out to protest against the closure of the coffee shop and gallery (Image: Phillip Nifield, Plaid Cymru Councillors Press Officer) (Image: Plaid Cymru)

Plaid Cymru Members of Senedd for South Wales East, Delyth Jewell MS and Peredur Owen Griffiths MS spoke at the rally and said:
“This is the heart of the community.

“It’s a local asset that has to be saved – but this is more than being about one building, this is about the wider regeneration of Caerphilly town centre and the haphazard way that the council is going about it”.

Branch secretary for Plaid Cymru estimated between 250 to 300 people attended the rally.
“It’s clear from the numbers that turned up today on such a cold day in the middle of January that people are fiercely proud of their town", continued MS Jewell and MS Griffiths.
At the rally, they also said, “the strength of feeling about this matter shows just how much the council has to change their minds and do so with urgency.”