Owners' despair at costly raids on Calderdale bar

The owners of a Sowerby Bridge bar devastated by floods in recent years have hit out at thieves who targeted their business after two of the most profitable weekends of the year.
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Sep 2018, 16:16 BST
Updated 19th Sep 2018, 10:22 BST

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Jayne and Colin Bray, owners of Cobblestones, want more police to help after recent burglaries at their bar and restaurant, the Wharf, Sowerby BridgeJayne and Colin Bray, owners of Cobblestones, want more police to help after recent burglaries at their bar and restaurant, the Wharf, Sowerby Bridge
Jayne and Colin Bray, owners of Cobblestones, want more police to help after recent burglaries at their bar and restaurant, the Wharf, Sowerby Bridge

Jayne and Colin Bray, who run waterfront restaurant Cobblestones Bar & Grill, were devastated to find they had been burgled after the town’s ‘rushbearing weekend’, just weeks after they were done over in a raid of Bank Holiday weekend takings. Over £1,500 has been taken from the premises.

“It’s just heartbreaking,” Jayne said, “Six months into owning the business we were devastated by floods and now we’re faced with this.

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“We’re working so hard just to make a viable business and living for ourselves.

“Every time you get a set back like these ones it breaks you a little bit.”

READ: Man threatened with hammer in Halifax tool theft

The business employs 17 local people and Jayne admitted that the pain suffered from the set backs has taken its toll on the husband-and-wife management team.

“Like I say, we’re just trying to make it work for everyone. It does make you think to yourself, ‘is it really worth it?’,

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“We’ve had success here but there is so much competition and you have to work so hard.

“At the end of the day we’re a small, family-run company trying to keep going and trying to keep all these people in employment.”

READ: Calderdale firefighters attacked and verbally abused by youths

Other nearby businesses have been targeted in recent weeks, including The Secret Cafe at Luddenden Foot.

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Part-owner Harry Bush said: “We put so much time and effort into running the place and it’s just so disheartening when this sort of thing happens.

“Once you add in the roadworks over the last couple of weeks, we’ve just been nailed.”

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