A restaurant with decades long history in Bucks town is facing a ‘fight’ to keep its outdoor terrace area. 

For 30 years, Gilbey’s Restaurant has been a well-known fixture in Old Amersham’s Market Square next to the Memorial Gardens and St Mary’s churchyard.

The family-owned restaurant was forced to be inventive almost overnight as Covid lockdown restrictions limited customer numbers and tables had to be spaced out.

To navigate through the uncertainty, Gilbey’s put up a canopy cover, outdoor seating and planters on “rarely used” Council-owned land in April 2021 in agreement with Bucks Council.

Now the restaurant has been “forced” to submit a retrospective planning application to retain the canopy and outdoor seating, Gilbey’s owner Lin Gilbey said.

She said: “We are trying our best to stay in business but times are extremely hard - quite why we are having to fight this planning application is beyond our comprehension. 

“We were led to believe that we were going to be granted all the help possible to try and recover from the long, hard enforced closure. We were then subjected to two more lockdowns.

“Recovering from that lost trading year has pushed us all in this industry to the very brink.”

Just when they were hoping to recover from Covid, the impact of the war in Ukraine, energy and cost of living crisis hit businesses and consumers, followed by the “Liz Truss debacle” with mortgage hikes and inflation spike, she explained.

The canopy is fixed to the Grade II listed building with bolts to keep it secure in wind after an unsuccessful trial using large umbrellas, which were “dangerous” and “a disaster” in the wind tunnel formed on the High Street, Lin said.

The restaurant sits in the Amersham Old Town Conservation Area and close to St Mary’s Church, which is a Grade I listed building.

The physical impact on the listed building is “very minimal” while the visual impact is affected by 5.5m extension around the original line of the building, the planning application argued.

“Whilst the canopy of the erected structure extends beyond the originally enclosed area, due to the shape and contours of the cover, its existence only provides limited impact from Market Square on the views towards the Church of St Mary. Given that the maximum height of the structure is only 4.4m and this is to the pinnacle of one support pole, the structure maintains subordination to the adjacent listed building,” the planning application said.

The covered area was “essential” to protect customers during unpredictable spring and summer weather, she said.

“We just hope that we will be allowed to keep our attractive and much-admired awning which has been such a success. Many customers have written to the council and have signed our petition begging them to be lenient,” she said.

“You would think the council would want to do their utmost to support such a long-standing and much-loved business,” she continued.

Bucks Council's cabinet member for planning and environment Peter Strachan said: “A planning application has been submitted for retrospective planning permission for the retention of a canopy cover, planters and outside seating at Gilbeys Restaurant in Amersham.

"The application is currently under consideration and as yet no decision has been made.”