Cafe owners in Bolton call it quits after repeated vandalism

A HEALTH bar and kitchen in Astley Bridge has taken the decision to close for good after being targeted by vandals several times during the pandemic.

80/20 Health Bar and Kitchen in Blackburn Road, run by Debbie and Paul Scrivens has filed for insolvency.

The cafe, which they only took over in January 2020 after both recovering from cancer, was vandalised twice last year, and then struggled trading through the pandemic, with repeated lockdowns.

The first attack was in early August before another in September, each time resulting in different windows being smashed.

Each incident was caught on CCTV with a masked man seen throwing a brick through the window before running off.

At the time, Debbie said she did not know if she would be able to carry on with the business as a result of these and the ongoing pandemic.

Confirming the cafe would be closing for good, she said: “I have just come to a breaking point with it all.

“Covid mixed with the windows being smashed killed the business completely.

“It was taking so long to getting round to getting the windows replaced through the insurance, with the claim still ongoing, that we looked like a completely derelict building, people just assumed we were closed.

“We didn’t get any furlough money to cover our staff which has caused a lot of problems with all the other costs involved.

“The mixture of everything going on just completely pushed us out, it was pretty much taken out of our hands.”

As a result of the struggles 80/20 has not been open since December 21 last year.

“There were always thoughts of maybe just giving it one more try but we just had to cut our losses in the end,” Debbie said.

“We’ve lost everything and more that we put into it.”

Through lockdown Debbie and Paul made meals for NHS workers to help them through the pandemic and tried the best they could to do takeaways to keep the business afloat.

She added: “Even with Covid we still had to keep up rent payments and other payments arising from the vandalism, it’s tragic really.

“But we believe what we were doing was good with the healthy food and maybe one day we’ll relaunch in a different way again.

“We’d had the idea of doing a food van and being more flexible but we need to wait for everything to come to an end with this first which is just so difficult.”

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