THE owner of a small independent café is blaming a glut of coffee shops in Aberystwyth for her decision to close down.

Theresa Hales has shut Lilly’s Coffee Shop in North Parade after trading for six years because of the large number of coffee shops in the town as well as high rent and rates payments.

Recently, multi-national companies Costa Coffee and Starbucks have opened cafés in the town.

Coffee Number One has also opened and Caffè Nero is expected to open in Great Darkgate Street shortly.

Theresa said: “Basically it’s more the amount of coffee shops that have been allowed to open in Aberystwyth and there are more on the way.

“I decided to get out as the minimum wage has risen and they’re introducing the pension payments that I would have had to pay to staff next year, and footfall seems to have gone down.

“We need more retail shops to bring people into Aberystwyth. There’s very little entertainment and the town seems to be mostly charity shops and coffee shops.

“There’s not a lot for people to come and do. There’s the museum and the Constitution Hill railway, but not a lot else.”

The closure of Lilly’s has left Theresa’s regular customers uncertain about where to now go.

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