The owner of a café in central Douglas says a long-standing vacant building site opposite his business is driving away potential customers.

Giovanni Ferrara has run the Buttery Café on Duke Street since 1992. He says a lack of progress on a nearby development site is creating safety concerns and reducing footfall in the area.

The site, located directly opposite the café, was earmarked for a mixed-use building comprising offices, flats and shops.

Mr Ferrara said: ‘Business has been ok, but in the last few years things have started to go downhill. It’s getting worse and worse. There is no footfall outside the café, and we’ve had this building site in front of us for years and years, which is not helping.’

The original planning application for the development was approved at appeal in 2019, and demolition work began in May 2020.

The initial plans included nine flats, but a revised application submitted in July 2021 increased the number to 20. This was approved the following month.

Construction work began later in 2021, with the steel framework for all six storeys of the building in place by November that year. Some locals have since referred to the structure as the ‘big grid’.

According to planning records, the application is due to expire on 26 August 2025 - less than nine weeks from now.

Mr Ferrara said: ‘It’s been very difficult to get in touch with the people involved in the development.

‘A lot of my customers complain about it. More people would sit outside and there would be more footfall without it there.’

Although work on the site briefly resumed in February 2022 after an initial halt and then again in February last year, Mr Ferrara said activity was short-lived.

‘About a year or two ago, they put everything together and said that work was going to start again, but it lasted about a week or two before they just disappeared from the site.

‘There’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. When people do walk past, we can’t just grab them and pull them in here.

‘Every business in the area is complaining about it.’

In May 2023, Clare Barber MHK, Minister for Environment, Food and Agriculture, confirmed the planning approval remained in effect.

She said: ‘Accordingly, this planning approval is still valid.

‘Having said this, the ground works and construction of the steelwork would likely be regarded as commencement of the development and therefore has an unlimited time for the works to be completed.

‘The department has had no correspondence with the applicants and owners since the commencement of works on the site.’

Thomson Hunter Associates, the developer listed for the project, is based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. The firm previously confirmed that construction had restarted in early 2022, but no further update has been issued since.

The site remains fenced off, with the exposed steel frame visible from Duke Street.

Mr Ferrara said he and other nearby business owners are continuing to raise concerns and hope for a resolution before the planning consent expires.