Council bosses in Newcastle have taken new steps towards reopening two park cafes that were controversially shut down. Cafes in both Exhibition Park and Paddy Freeman’s park were closed earlier this year, with Newcastle City Council saying the two sites were “haemorrhaging” cash and had become unsustainable.
Staff at the cafes were described as being “shellshocked” by the news, with the double closure sparking a backlash and concerns about the loss of community facilities popular with the elderly and people taking part in Parkrun.
The local authority later announced that the venues could reopen under new management, despite saying they were costing the public purse around £200,000 per year.
And it now appears that the council is edging closer to agreeing deals to hand both over to a new operator.
Notices posted on the council’s website reveal that, as of 6 May, authorisation has been approved to grant a tenancy at will for both cafes – followed by a 10-year lease.
The full details of the decisions have been kept confidential, however, and Civic Centre officials told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that a preferred operator had not yet been chosen.
They added that final proposals would need to be put before the city’s new political administration, following the outcome of this week’s local elections.
A council spokesperson said: “This is a necessary administrative step to allow us to enter into negotiations in the future with the preferred developer for these two sites, once one has been selected. At this stage, no formal agreements are in place with any third party.
“Any proposal will be discussed with a new political administration with the view to improving facilities and a commercial offer in our parks and green spaces.”
Both cafes came under the council’s control when the local authority took back 33 city parks from charity Urban Green Newcastle (UGN) in March 2025.
Councillors were told at a meeting in March that expressions of interest from third parties in taking over the cafes were coming in daily.
That was despite Christine Herriot, the council’s director of city operations, neighbourhoods and regulatory services, saying that they had too little footfall to justify their continued operation.
She added: “The demand just was not there, we are more than able to demonstrate that.”
