Bognor Picturedome cafe owners set to move on

Cafe operators Rick and Colleen Rayner have become so fed up with the wrangling about the building's future they are set to leave their premises on the ground floor of its Linden Road frontage.

Mrs Rayner said the uncertainty meant she and her husband could not get a lease drawn up to give them security.

"We want the cinema to stay. We don't want to lose anything else in Bognor," she said.

"But we have been fighting for two-and-a-half years to get a lease. It's cost us a lot of money and it's been a hugely frustrating time. It's time for us to move on.

"With the cinema up for sale, we don't know who is going to buy it. Whoever does, may not want us. The Bognor Pier Co can't give us any security. All we've been offered is a three-month licence to rent."

She said the likely new premises were still in the town centre. She and her husband wanted a more settled business life compared with the five landlords in their 15 years at the cinema.

The cafe is sub-let from the Picturedrome Electric Theatre Co. It operates the cinema on behalf of property firm Anaid Holdings, which went into administration in May, which leases the building from Bognor Pier Co.

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