Worksop business owner thanks council for help after flooding hits shop launch

A number of shops and businesses across Worksop have struggled in the aftermath of November’s floods.

Smokin’ Shirley’s, a former street kitchen turned take away, had been refurbished and ready to launch when the floods hit and their hopes of success for their new venture were almost washed away.

Owner Robert Moore, 51, from Worksop, said: “I had been trading in my street kitchen as Smokin' Shirley's for a couple years and it worked well, we were getting great reviews so I thought a permanent residence would be more suitable.

“In May of 2019 I took on a shop at 5 Ryton Street Worksop, which I refurbished into a BBQ Smokehouse takeaway delivery shop.

“We were ready to open on Tuesday November 5 and we went for a soft launch – we were going to open officially on Friday November 8.”

However, on November 8, areas of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were hit with floods that residents described to be ‘worse than the floods of 2007’.

Robert added: “We couldn't open our shop as it had a foot of water in it and all the electrics were off.

“We had three days of produce ready to roll so with quick thinking I said to the staff 'let's open the street kitchen and see if we can get ourselves out of trouble’, so the manager put the word around about what we were up to.

“The owner from Papa's Fish and Chips, Nick Vass, said we could set up in his car park which was very kind of him. We posted on Facebook about what had happened and we managed to sell half of the stock.”

It took over a week to clean the shop and restore it to its previous five-star food standard before Robert could re-open.

“We are now trading and have had wonderful reviews from the small amount of customers we have had,” he added.

“We have been open now for four weeks - in part due to Nottinghamshire County Council who have been very helpful with their flood fund. Without that I think [the floods] might have sent us under, so thank you to them.”