A PETITION to stop a pop-up beach cafe being opened in Flushing seems to have succeeded after the owners of the village shop said it threatened their livelihood.

The petition was started by the owners Pete and Sandy Skinner of Flushing Stores over fears that the proposal for a pop up stall on the beach would deal the store a death blow.

But after the Packet approached beach owner Nick Trefusis from the Trefusis estate for a comment on the petition the paper was told the plan would not go-ahead if it threatened the future of the store.

Mr Skinner said he was worried that the proposed seasonal stall, which would be open for 28-days over the summer, would take up a large proportion of the shop's yearly income.

Without the summer custom Flushing Stores would have struggled to survive, and Mr Skinner set up a petition to rally the locals together, which quickly received over 100 signatures.

But now Mr Trefusis has said that he may not go ahead with the plans because of the threat they posed to the shop's future.

Owners Pete and Sandy Skinner, say they have been keeping the shop afloat for the past three years, but it has been a struggle.

Mr Skinner, 57, says that keeping the store open has been a constant battle, and that without the summer influx of cash then they would struggle to stay open.

He said: “It doesn’t give us a fantastic living, we do it as more of a hobby.

“We’re about to start our fourth year, and we feel this winter we’ve just turned a corner.

“It’s not as bad as it has been in previous years, and the news of the pop up shop opening really shocked us.

“I emailed Nicholas Trefusis and explained my situation and he said that he didn’t realise the shop was struggling.

“The problem is because it was due to be on private land, there was nothing we could do to stop it. 

“The only one who could do anything is Mr Trefusis, so this is good news.”

Mr Trefusis told the Packet: “There is someone interested in having a pop up café, but it is just an idea and would be to just sell ice cream and refreshments on the beach.

“The people who used to have the shop always said it would be good to have a stall on the beach to sell ice cream. It’s just in the consultation period at the minute, we don’t want to do something that no one would want.

“The owners of the shop are struggling and we don’t want the shop to suffer, so it is unlikely the plans will go ahead because of the vulnerability of the local shop.

“Unless there is some way the shop and the stall could work together, such as the stall selling things for the shop, but that is something they would have to agree on.”
John Symons, chairman of Mylor Parish Council, said: “The owner who wants to open the pop up shop on the beach came along to our planning meeting at the beginning of the month and gave us a formal discussion on what she wanted to do, but no planning submission was made.

“The parish council can’t make a decision until a submission is made, when a planning submission is made then I imagine the parish will have an opinion.”