“Complete loss” for businesses after incident on city roof

Independent businesses said they suffered a “complete loss of profits” after a city center was closed because a man climbed onto the roof of a building.

Ipswich Buttermarket and the surrounding area were cordoned off from 4:35am BST on Thursday after initial reports of a jewelery break-in, before reports of the man on a building roof.

The incident was solved at around 1.40pm and police confirmed a man had been charged in connection with the incident.

However, many businesses have decided to remain closed on this day.

‘loss of wages’

Police were initially called to Carat’s Jewelers in the Buttermarket and the affected businesses included the Bonbon bakery and cafe.

Stuart Calder, director of Bonbon, arrived at the cafe around 8am but was unable to open.

“Once it was past 12 p.m., there was no financial reason to open,” he explained.

“We hadn’t made any preparations, we hadn’t cooked any jacket potatoes and we hadn’t made any sausage rolls.

“If we had access at 12:15 or 12:30, it would have been 2 p.m. when we opened.

“Even when we got access, there was no lunchtime trading, there were no customers, so we would be open, everything turned on, using a lot of electricity and not making any money.”

Mr Calder estimated that the company had lost around £1,000 and that he would not get that amount back.

“This doesn’t just affect me, the workforce has also lost all working hours and wages,” he added.

“A complete loss”

Rebecca Cockett, owner of Mama Bear Cake Bar on The Walk, attempted to bring some of her supplies into the store when she arrived but was turned away by police.

“I thought I could come in, bake and prep something and then be ready whenever it was done, but I didn’t come close,” she explained.

“As a small business I was quite worried as we rely on good trading every day to keep us going.”

Ms Cockett estimated she had lost £500 and many of Thursday’s cakes and perishables were wasted.

“This is a complete loss,” she added.

“60% lost recording”

Rob Darling, who did not want to be involved in his job in the city, said his employer lost a significant amount.

“There are quite a few companies that have lost quite a bit of sales – about 60% of daily sales have been lost,” he explained.

“Companies won’t be able to dismiss this like it’s nothing.”

“We are all strong”

An assistant at Dial Lane Books, who asked to be identified as Jonesy, said she did not want the incident to deter people from coming to Ipswich town centre.

“We are really upset that we have lost a day’s earnings and so are all of our neighbors,” she said.

“There are no positives, but I want to say we are all strong,” she said.

“There are lots of strong independent businesses here and Ipswich is still a lovely, charming town to visit.”

Follow the news from Suffolk Facebook, Instagram And X. Do you have a story? E-mail [email protected] or write us a WhatsApp on 0800 169 1830

More on this story

Related internet links