{"id":577014,"date":"2025-11-17T22:11:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/577014\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T22:11:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:11:23","slug":"edinburgh-coffee-shop-may-be-forced-to-close-because-of-council-development-project-owner-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/577014\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh coffee shop may be forced to close because of council development project, owner claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

A SMALL business owner in Edinburgh has claimed that the\u00a0city\u2019s\u00a0council<\/a> has\u00a0repeatedly ignored his warnings about the effects of\u00a0a\u00a0new residential housing development on his business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Edinburgh Council has for years been planning to redevelop the site of the former\u00a0Powderhall<\/a>\u00a0Waste Transfer Station in Broughton into affordable housing, an early\u00a0years\u00a0centre, and an old persons\u2019 home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0Yossi Mazon, the owner of a coffee shop on Broughton Road \u2013 directly in front of the construction site \u2013 said that the council has not provided any support or information\u00a0regarding\u00a0the disruption, and has ignored his attempts to engage with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of the construction works, the council have today\u00a0closed off the path which runs from Broughton Road alongside the construction site and through into St. Marks Park<\/a>, and which provides Yossi\u00a0much of\u00a0his trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DelishYoss<\/a>DelishYoss Coffee Bar could see footfall significantly decrease as construction progresses (C) Yossi Mazon<\/p>\n

DelishYoss\u00a0Coffee Bar, a former\u00a0police box which has been owned and\u00a0operated\u00a0by Yossi as a cafe for over seven years, is the only business which will be directly affected by building work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite this, Yossi, who was born in Israel and has lived in Edinburgh for over 20 years, says that the council\u2019s attempts to communicate with him about the building work have been \u201claconic\u201d and lacklustre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council officers have been to his business to discuss his issues with them, but, according to Yossi, did not provide any useful information or engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The formal consultation period for the project ended in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aside from the potential loss of trade to his business, Yossi also worries about the effects the construction may have on his utilities, which run from underneath the construction site into his shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council, however, has\u00a0provided assurances that any loss in footfall from the park will be made up for by the hundreds of construction workers who will be stationed behind his store and who, they say, will patronise Yossi\u2019s store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yossi says there are no guarantees this will happen, however, and claimed that workers will have their own canteen providing coffee and refreshments onsite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"St.<\/a>St. Mark\u2019s Path will be closed for an initial eight weeks, but could be closed for even longer (C) Yossi Mazon<\/p>\n

Speaking\u00a0today, Yossi said that he had no issue with the project itself and sees it as socially\u00a0very\u00a0useful, but\u00a0would like some certainty from the council about how it would affect him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He explained:\u00a0\u201cAt the moment, I know nothing from the council.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0been chasing them for the past five years \u2013 just to put mitigation in place \u2013 but\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0received no answers from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing that they did was close the St. Mark\u2019s Path.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis path\u00a0is responsible for\u00a060-70% of my footfall \u2013 cyclists use it to go to\u00a0work,\u00a0the community uses it to go walking to the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI only received confirmation that they would be closing this path three days ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The path is set to be closed for eight weeks but the council and CCG, the construction firm contracted to complete the works, have reserved the right to apply for a further extension, pending statutory approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A diversion route has been put in place, but this will bypass Yossi\u2019s coffee shop entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yossi would like to see the council put together an impact assessment and formal mitigation plans but says that time is running out for the council to provide the support which could see his business through the construction period, which is slated to last until\u00a0spring 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u00a0said: \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0in a tricky spot, because I\u00a0actually approve\u00a0of the project,\u00a0I\u00a0think the development\u00a0is good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0a part of this community,\u00a0I think we\u00a0need the nursery spaces, we need the elderly home space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI also understand that, when it is finished, it will also\u00a0benefit\u00a0me, because there will be more footfall, but if I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0work properly for the next two years, then I will not get to that point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will have to close.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Construction on the major project has been progressing in phases for years now (C) Yossi Mazon<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe fact they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0do anything, and they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0even give me any form of acknowledgement makes\u00a0me feel like they\u00a0actually\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like they don\u2019t mind if I close the business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Powderhall\u00a0regeneration project has being worked on in phases since 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once completed, the project will provide a new civic square off Broughton Road, improvements to the St. Mark\u2019s path, upgrades to the Broughton Road-McDonald Road junction, and a new flexible workspace and artist\u2019s studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Edinburgh Council has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A SMALL business owner in Edinburgh has claimed that the\u00a0city\u2019s\u00a0council has\u00a0repeatedly ignored his warnings about the effects of\u00a0a\u00a0new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,182828,146093,182829,182830,1102,182831,182832,122958,182833,145867,182834,4884,182835,712,16,15,182836],"class_list":{"0":"post-577014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-broughton-coffee-shop","10":"tag-broughton","11":"tag-delishyoss-coffee-bar","12":"tag-disruptive-construction","13":"tag-edinburgh","14":"tag-edinburgh-coffee-shop-affected","15":"tag-edinburgh-construction","16":"tag-edinburgh-housing","17":"tag-edinburgh-powderhall","18":"tag-edinburgh-small-business","19":"tag-edinburgh-small-business-consultation","20":"tag-great-britain","21":"tag-powderhall-development","22":"tag-scotland","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-yossi-mazon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115567335228136728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}