New stretch target
Dear Supporter of Sunny News
It’s with a heavy heart and great sadness that we have to announce that, after 30 years of invaluable community service, Sunny will be closing the shop and vacating the premises at the end of March 2018.
The parties were due to attend the trial last Thursday at Wandsworth County Court but, due to the amount of legal fees he would have incurred had he lost the case, Sunny was left with no alternative but to settle the claim and agree to vacate the premises. We understand that the landlord based their claim for possession on their intention to convert the premises and live there themselves but as the case was settled, the landlord’s case was never tested at court.
You may be wondering what happened to the money we, as a community, crowdfunded to help Sunny fight this case and why didn’t he use those funds for this recent court case. Those funds were used to fight his Judicial Review at the High Court earlier this year, to try and reverse the planning inspectorate appeal decision against Wandsworth Council who refused the original application and the Landlord from gaining planning permission allowing him to convert the shop into a private dwelling.
You may not be aware that the shop has always been used as a shop and was built for that purpose where it could be used to serve the local community. This is something Sunny and Jamie have done in our corner of Southfields admirably over so many years, with our children growing up buying their sweets from Sunny’s and all of us benefitting from having our local paper delivery and so much more. Most importantly, Sunny and Jamie have served the wider community far beyond from just the other side of the counter, by being a lookout for our young and old alike and being a true community service to our friendly neighbourhood. This was recognised when the residents association succeeded in having the shop being granted the status of an “Asset of Community Value”.
Sadly in March next year, Sunny, Jamie and family will have to closedown and move away from their friends, home and livelihood and try and establish a new life for themselves elsewhere.
This is really a very sad outcome not only for Sunny but for our whole neighbourhood who will now lose this unofficial community centre, with all its associated services, which is closing against the wishes of everyone!
Thank you all very much for your huge and continued support throughout our Save Sunny News campaign.
Sunny News Campaign Team
THANK YOU edit
Dear Donor
As you will probably know the crowdfund fundraiser is now finished and you have helped to raise a fantastic £9,006 not including the cash and cheque donations we have also received.
We will continue to keep you informed about developments.
In the meantime, on behalf of STRA, Sunny & Jaymi, thankyou for your overwhelming generosity.
Kind regards
Save Sunny News Campaign Team
"We are overfunding, check out what we can do if we reach £20,000 target!”
Thank you to all of you who have made donations so far as this is a great start to the Save Sunny News Campaign fund.
The legal fees for expert representation for the Statutory Review will be considerably more than our initial target so we will continue to raise funds to support the Save Sunny News campaign and help towards the costs of saving his business.
Please keep spreading the word so that we can continue to help Save Sunny News as we feel the shop is a vital community asset. It is really important that we try and raise as much money as we can to contribute to the legal fees.
In order to secure the funds from this crowdfunding site we had to set our initial target at a lower figure, because if we didn't hit the target we wouldn't have been allowed to withdraw the funds and they'd have been returned to donors. By hitting the first target we are guaranteed the funds raised and can continue to fundraise.
It would be fantastic if you can share this linkwith three other people.