A POPULAR Newport café has decided to stop serving alcohol for the time being after a series of complaints.

The Café at Ridgeway in Allt-yr-yn, Newport was granted an alcohol licence in 2015 – despite opposition from residents.

However, on Friday, March 19, the café posted a message on their social media accounts saying they were suspending their alcohol licence for a month.

John Lavender who runs the café said the decision had been made after a number of complaints were made to Newport City Council.

He said: “We took the decision to suspend the licence because every week we would get complaints and have the licensing people come up four or five times a week. So we’ve taken the decision not to continue it.

“The inspectors come up and check and everything is being run properly. The complaints seem to be against the café in general. Most of the locals are very nice. People have their right to a say but I feel we are not being encourage to thrive.”

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Mr Lavender said the café - currently open for takeaway-only due to Covid-19 rules - serves around 5,000 drinks a week and employs 14 people, and the decision to suspend the alcohol licence had been taken to avoid putting any of those jobs at risk.

“If this continued, we would potentially be told to shut completely which would put our staff out of work and we don’t want that, hence why we made the decision to suspend the licence,” he said.

Some of the complaints have been acknowledged and they are working towards fixing them. “We have had complaints about the rubbish, but we go out once or twice a day and collect it all, however, the bins are small and not all of it will fit in them,” said Mr Lavender.

The café is still open on the usual hours – 8am to 6pm Monday-Saturday and 9am-6pm on Sundays.

Newport City Council did not respond to request for comment.