A community of coffee-lovers held a protest last week in support of a “well-loved” cafe who are challenging a major supermarket seating ban.

On June 15, more than fifty people rallied around Ziggy Played Guitar, a coffee shop in Highams Park to protest a “discretionary” licence fee imposed by Tesco for outdoor seating.

The “Bring a Chair to Ziggy’s” sit in was organised when the landlords, Tesco, decided to charge the owners of the shop, Liz and Howard Jones, a £1000 licence fee to keep outdoor seating in front of their business.

In response to the ban people from the community, including children, parents and grandparents turned up with deck chairs, camping chairs and even a garden bench to sit outside the Signal Walk coffee shop, directly opposite Tesco.

Many made posters and protest signs to hold up.

Epping Forest Guardian:

One of the protest organisers, Georgina Clifford, said: “Ziggy's is a well-loved local business that has been open just over a year now. I spend a lot of time there either working or having lunch with my children.

“Although Ziggy's have had seating outside since opening, Tesco's have decided to impose a discretionary charge of £1000 (plus admin fees) for them to have seating outside.

“It is well-known that small businesses struggle in their first year or two of opening and as this is a discretionary charge, us locals believe that Tesco could very easily choose not to impose this charge.”

Liz Jones, owner of Ziggy’s, said: “It’s a big shock, we weren’t given any notice after 18-months of good will and then they decided they needed to ‘protect their assets’.

“It means people cannot sit outside or see us as clearly. We have a strange name, they might think we are a guitar shop and miss us. We have agreed to pay but have no time scale.”

Liz and Howard Jones

Epping Forest Guardian:

Liz went on to say that when Tesco went in nearly five years ago they talked about “encouraging” local businesses and “ironically” that Ziggy’s would do better had it chairs outside for customers.

Liz added: “From my point of view, because it’s discretionary and not a legal point I think it might be unnecessary.

“There are other spaces that have tables and chairs outside but its seems to be aimed at us. It’s not consistent. I spoke to other businesses who haven’t received the same fee.

“We feel it is heavy-handed and not commensurate with the space our three tables take up. The community support has been very sweet.”

Liz and Howard opened Ziggy’s, a Bowie-themed coffee and gift shop in 2017.

Fellow protester, Victoria Dove, said: “The discretionary fee is a drop in the ocean for them. They’re just counting the pennies and being short-sighted and not thinking about the local community.”

Ziggy’s supporter, Martha Kilner, 38, said: “We don’t think it’s fair that Tesco is charging them to use the outdoor public space seeing as Ziggy’s do so much for the local community.”

In response, a Tesco spokesperson, said: “We are currently in discussions with the owners of the café, as their landlord, to arrange for a licence which will allow them to use additional space outside of their premises to increase the number of tables in their coffee shop.

“We are committed to working with all our tenants to support their businesses to offer the choice and variety that will allow the local area to continue to prosper.”