Derbyshire park's new cafe surrounded by flooding before it even opens

Park Life at the Swiss Tea Rooms in Belper’s Riverside Gardens is currently being fitted out prior to its opening in springtime.

A spokesman for Amber Valley Borough Council, which handed the keys of the new building to the cafe operator a few weeks ago, said: “The tea rooms experienced some low level ingress but the building’s flood barriers were successful in preventing most of the water surrounding the building.”

Comments on social media have questioned the logic of building on an area known to flood.

Neil Paxton said on Facebook: “This is a recognised flood plain, why was this not considered at the planning stage, just ridiculous.”

Matt Waterfall posted: “A big red warning was when it flooded the foundations when they’d just been dug, surely the powers that be would have thought hold on, we need to either move the location or raise it!”

Colette Lynam said: “You can see the flood defence at the back, question is have they worked though?”

Pip’s PIx commented: “Oh no ,what a tragedy, been visiting there for three years waiting for it to open, absolutely gutted for everyone.”

Deep Beat Entertainments, the company chosen by the borough council to run the cafe, has been approached for a comment.

The business has created 20 jobs in a purpose-built new building which replaces the former Swiss Tea Rooms which were a fixture in the gardens from 1906. The old Swiss Tea Rooms became derelict in 1981.