To all our valued customers & friends.
We have recently had our meeting with network rail and unfortunately are not much further forward than we were prior to the meeting.
The expected resolution of issues on the 11th of October, was actually just a basic reconnaissance mission by Network Rail to view the site.
What has been a simple disagreement regarding drainage has turned into a litigious arguments and statements via email regarding planning (of which we have the correct consents from Waltham Forest Council) and not the original drainage concern.
This statement is not intended to berate Network Rail as it seems they are now trying to progress our issues internally but are instructing us not to continue with the refurbishment as a cafe until the relevant consents are attained. We would like to point out that to start this internal procedure with NR they issued an invoice, as there is a cost, which was paid promptly over 2 years ago (they had no record of this, which we provided during the meeting), in between this 2 years a number of NR staff were aware of the ‘use’ of the building, including site visits by members included in our meeting.
Our frustration is palpable, as we have followed all of their procedures, and the shortcomings are from the large company, not the local business and find ourselves dealing with an unrelated issue to the original problem.
As a result of this we have had to let all of our staff go as we cannot give them a definite re-opening date.
We will further update all of our customers when we get a response from Network Rail.
Thank you for your time,
La Boîte
