Staff shellshocked as Newcastle cafes announce closure as falling popularity and running costs blamed
Staff at two park cafes in Newcastle have been left “shellshocked” by news that they will both shut.
Newcastle City Council has announced that it is closing its cafes at Paddy Freeman’s Park and Exhibition Park, blaming a “continued decline in their popularity and an increase in running costs”.
The Paddy Freeman’s site was shut with immediate effect on Tuesday, with its staff temporarily transferring over to the Exhibition Park cafe before its planned closure.
Council bosses said that the Exhibition Park cafe would remain open for “at least two weeks” and the 13 employees affected would be given the chance to apply for other local authority jobs.
Victoria Fyffe, a regular customer of the Exhibition Park cafe, said its staff were “shellshocked” following the announcement.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Whenever I go there are always families there, there are groups with children who have special needs, there are lots of elderly customers. It is a real community hub.
“I think a venture like that should be given more time and it doesn’t feel like they are putting any value on the benefits to the community.”
One cafe employee, who asked not to be named, said the sites had been victims to “really poor management from people who don’t understand how a cafe ought to be run”.
They described the Paddy Freeman’s cafe as being a “very communited-based” operation popular with elderly customers and visitors to the Freeman Hospital, and said that the Exhibition Park site was particularly busy at weekends for Park Run events.
The city council took over the cafes in March 2025, after it took back control of the city’s parks from charity Urban Green.
Civic Centre officials said on Tuesday that the two sites “are affected by seasonal demand” and had not achieved “any significant increase in sales” despite investment.
They added that closing the cafes would save taxpayers more than £200,000 per year.
A spokesperson for the Parks Service said: “We love our parks and we recognise that the cafes bring additional value to our park users. However, their ability to generate the income needed to cover their costs is heavily impacted by weather, seasonal demand and increasing operating costs.
“There are times of the year where they will do well but this hasn’t brought in enough income to make them financially viable. Given the pressures we face as a council, it would not be acceptable for us to continue to run these venues at a loss.
“This impacts on other front-line services that are funded by the council tax payer and so we are faced with what is an incredibly difficult decision. We will support staff at the venues and their welfare will be our priority over the next few weeks. There will be some opportunities for staff to apply for alternative roles in the council.
“The buildings will remain part of the parks service, as we continue to develop the wider service. In the future, we will review this and consider potential opportunities to bring the buildings back into use”.