A café in Weymouth has been forced to close due to pressures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Café SafeWise, which is on the SafeWise learning village and community centre on Radipole Lane, will be shut for the foreseeable future after its operator decided to close the doors, citing financial and mental health implications of the Covid-19 crisis as reasons for the departure.

Weymouth resident Sarah Allan had operated the café since January 2019. She ran it alongside members of her family including her daughter Ashleigh and daughter-in-law Chantelle. The café has always been a special place for the family as Mrs Allan’s husband Dave has worked at the fire station next door since it first opened. He would often help his wife with the washing up in the café too.

However Mrs Allan has now made the decision to not reopen. She closed the doors on Tuesday, March 17 and has not opened since with no reopening date in sight. Mrs Allan did start doing takeaways during the lockdown period but she had to stop because she could not go on site anymore due to safety measures in place. She said: “I was very proud to have been able to run this cafe for the last 18 months but due to Covid-19 it has now become untenable. No money coming in, not sure on an opening date and when it was going to open obviously strict measures would have to be put in place. I rely a lot on conferences and gatherings to cater for and of course they won’t be happening for a while.”

Mrs Allan said the stress of the recent crisis has also taken a toll on her mental health: “My mental health was suffering too. I am 52 and this is the longest I have ever not worked apart from having my children. I have had lots of fantastic support from suppliers, friends and family and consider myself very lucky to have been able to run this cafe all but for a very short while.

“I would like to thank all my supporters in this venture especially family, volunteers, friends, suppliers and my lovely loyal customers, it is a heartbreaking decision to make but it’s the right decision to make, be lovely to see you all again perhaps for a coffee or a drink, thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”

Rob Hattersley, chief executive of SafeWise, said: “We would like to thank Sarah for her amazing effort in getting Cafe SafeWise up and running. We completely understand the reasoning behind Sarah’s decision, and wish her all the very best for the future. We are currently reviewing all SafeWise charity operations in the light of Covid 19 and will release more details about future plans when it is appropriate to do so.”