'Scantily clad chavs' - hate mail sent to LG Cafe in Arundel

The LG Cafe in Tarrant Street, Arundel, received a letter on Wednesday morning accusing the business owners of “selfish activities” and describing its customers as “scantily clad maskless chavs”.

The letter, which claims to be from “The Arundel Society”, states: “Your persistence for entirely commercial reasons in purveying takeaway unhealthy food is attracting the wrong type of people to our distinguished town.

“(There are) long queues down Tarrant Street, guided by your unauthorised pavement guides, of scantily clad maskless chavs with no social distancing at all, blocking the pavement for decent residents”. 

George Johnson, who co-owns the cafe and bakery with his partner Lily Trunfull, described it as a “very stressful time” during the past few weeks, as the business has also received abusive messages and criticism regarding social distancing on social media.

He said: “We know it’s absolutely not the whole town but a very vocal minority.

“It’s xenophobia and there’s no place for it. We’re trying to get through a pandemic.

“We’re doing takeaways through a hatch and we’ve got social distancing markers. The police have been down and they’ve said it’s one of the most Covid secure places they’ve seen.

“For us to be getting these abusive messages is just not right.”

George believes the person who wrote the letter is claiming to be from “The Arundel Society” in order to avoid being identified.

He said: “The Arundel Society is a cover. 

“It was a historic society up until about seven years ago but is now defunct.

“Some people who are spreading hate about us online are saying the letter is fake, but we’ve had name-calling and abuse in emails and on various social media pages.

“Both Lily and I feel sorry for these people, as there’s obviously something wrong.”

George and Lily, who also have an ice cream parlour in the town, have been running the LG Cafe for almost two years, selling homemade cakes, cookies and drinks.

George said it was particularly hurtful to receive abuse during the coronavirus crisis, when he is trying to support the community. 

He said: “We’re one of six businesses doing takeaways in the town but the only place these people are trying to get shut down is us.

“Customers have been bringing their kids in who they’re home-schooling for a treat.

“We’ve had orders from people for surprise cakes too.

“If a cake can bring a smile to someone’s face during this crisis - that’s why Lily and I get up at 4.30am every morning to start work.”

George has alerted Sussex Police to the letter and online messages, but he and Lily also decided to use their creativity to hit back at the abuse.

The pair have been busy baking cupcakes labelled “Proud to be the wrong type of person” and “Proud to be a chav”.

George said: “We’ve had loads of customers turning up asking for these cakes since. If those snooty people looking down their noses at us want to call us names, I think all our customers are quite happy to own the words and make it their own.

“The only way we can beat the bullies is to confront them.”

George added that he and Lily had received a lot of supportive messages from customers in the past few days.

He said: “We are all about peace and love. We love our customers, whoever they are.

“We will never bow to xenophobia or hatred. It makes us more determined, at a time when the world should be coming together and helping each other.”

Sussex Police said they were aware of the issue. 

A spokesman said: “The operation of business under the Covid-19 regulations is a matter for the local authority. However we will work with the café owner and local authority to ensure that the business is safe and the owner and his customers are not being discriminated against.”

“We actively support diversity, and we are committed to making sure hate behaviour or crime in any form is not tolerated in Sussex.”

Arun District Council said it had carried out checks and found no problems regarding Covid-19 safety at the cafe.  

A spokesman said: “Covid information officers are actively patrolling the district to check compliance with Covid regulations and guidance, including businesses in Arundel. 

“These patrols have not identified any specific concerns with Covid compliance at LG Cafe.”