Harold Hill soft play area may close after Havering rent hike

Frankie’s Soft Play and Café, located on the first floor of MyPlace community centre in Dagnam Park Drive, offers subsidised leisure services to kids aged 0-8 and serves food.

Christopher Andrews, 39, has been operating it with the help of his sister and parents for around the last five years after they won a tender from Havering Council.

Christopher's family came up with the idea of setting up a soft play centre and made £25,000 investment to buy the equipment and refurnish the café.

The business today serves at least 50 kids a day and brings about 100 people to MyPlace every day, he claimed.

The soft play area also caters for children's birthday parties (Image: Frankie's Soft Play Centre and Cafe)

He added that it was meant to be a service for the community rather than being a commercial entity.

He said: “We don’t even make a lot of money out of it. We have kept the prices very affordable for the families in the area.”

Christopher shared that things started to be difficult in the last two to three years when the business went “out of contract” with the council. 

He claimed that the council did not send them a revised contract in these years, and they continued to adhere to the terms agreed in 2017.

Then, about six months ago, Christopher claimed the council expressed their intention to increase the rent but no agreement was reached.

Christopher added: “With the cost-of-living crisis, the prices of food going up, it was just not going to be commercially viable for us to pay any more than what we did.”

Three weeks ago Christopher’s sister, Charlotte, who worked as a staff member, was informed by a manager at MyPlace that their premises was about to be re-tendered.

Christopher claimed that, after some negotiations, they were given three weeks to agree to terms that were 60 per cent higher than what they paid before. 

Christopher accused the council of being “unprofessional”.

He said: “We own the soft play, so we will take it with us and will have to relocate it elsewhere like Upminster.

“It is just very sad as Harold Hill is a more deprived area and the kids here will lose out.”

The move will also personally impact Charlotte, a single mum, who cannot travel long distance in a car after an accident a few years ago.

Charlotte said she was “deeply concerned” about what she will do if the business relocates.

She said: “I just feel really sad for the people who come in regularly here.

"This place is just a bus ride away from Romford and not everyone will be able to afford to drive to Upminster.”

She added that the soft play centre had brought the community together with some visitors becoming “like their family.”

A letter sent to the council leader, Ray Morgon, by Christopher raised questions about the money he invested while opening the space and about the future of the site.

Christopher wrote: “What is to become of our investment of more than £25k to provide a service for toddlers that the building lacked?"

An assortment of sweets designed for a party (Image: Frankie's Soft Play and Cafe)

A council spokesperson confirmed that the lease on the premises “has been out of contract” for some time and the “current provider has the option to retender for the site, if they wish.”

They added: “Like everyone else, the council is in a position where it needs to ensure that the lease of properties are viable and we are no longer able to sustain the previous rates we offered in 2017, when the contract was made for 12 months.”

The council, the spokesperson said, informed the owners at the end of 2022 that it would be opening up tendering opportunities.

They added: “They were also reminded that this would be taking place a few days before the process began.”

The three weeks given to the business expired on May 31, but Christopher said he is still in limbo about their future.

He said: "We just don't know if we are shutting down or not which does not help as we have parties that we have booked for coming weeks."