New roof on the way as popular Lancaster co-operative hits target and submits council bid

Staff at the long-established Single Step and The Whale Tail Café have been desperately raising funds towards a new roof on their Penny Street building before winter sets in.

Without a new roof both businesses would face closure.

An online fundraising page has passed their £40,000 target, and work is now due to get under way, including improvements such as proper insulation and solar panels to help make the businesses more sustainable and to lower energy overheads in the future.

As part of this, an application for three new roof lights has been submitted to Lancaster City Council this week.

A council report says work replacing the roof is expected to take two weeks to complete.

The proposal for velux roof lights to match the existing lights will retain the historic building fabric of the building, the reports adds.

The Whale Tail wrote on their Facebook page recently: “The scaffolding is going up on the 2nd of September and the job of replacing the roof begins on the 9th - eeeeek!

"We shall be open until the day before, Sunday the 8th - and will hopefully return within a fortnight, but it might go on a little longer depending on what Shaun and the lads find as they strip the roof back. Single Step will be open throughout though.

“It goes without saying, this could not have happened without the kindness of this amazing community we are privileged to belong to and to say thank you doesn't seem enough, but THANK YOU, from our hearts. Xxxxxx”

As well as the online funding page, the businesses also sold merchandise in their bid to raise the cash needed,which was very kindly donated from various sources, such as coasters and keyrings from Relic Plastics, T-shirts featuring a bespoke design from local artist Hannah Corbett and homemade jewellery from a mysterious anonymous benefactor.

They also ran numerous community events such as monthly quizzes, gigs, club nights, craft fairs and wine tastings, all of which proved very popular.