Cafe owner says cashless system would be 'awful'

The co-owner of a cash-only community cafe in Dorset says people need to have the option to continue using cash, and that a cashless system would be "awful".

A Treasury Committee report into cash acceptance stopped short of recommending a change in the law forcing firms to accept cash, but said the government needed to monitor the issue.

Shops and services can currently accept whichever form of payment they want.

Hayley Mason, of Red Brick Cafe in Bridport, said vulnerable people would be disproportionately affected if the option to use cash was taken away.

The Treasury Committee said, as more firms go card-only, prices would rise for businesses still accepting cash, creating a poverty premium for people who use cash to budget, or for vulnerable people including those with learning difficulties or the elderly.

Ms Mason said she did not want to preach to other businesses but said the cafe's ethos was to "welcome anybody".

"However much money you have, or how little you have, somebody will always be able to afford something," she said.

"For cash to be abolished would be awful. There are too many vulnerable people that would be affected.

"Part of our ethos is to support local producers who want to be paid in cash when they deliver goods to our cafe, so being in that circle is the best way for us."

The cafe, in Bridport's Vintage Quarter, opened in 2010 and customers without cash can visit a nearby cashpoint while their order is prepared.

"We are lucky, people are quite willing to take that walk," Ms Mason said.

The Treasury Committee report comes after cash campaigner Martin Quinn criticised BCP Council for not accepting cash at ice cream kiosks on Bournemouth seafront.

BCP said the cashless system meant shorter queues, reduced costs and fewer break-ins.

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