The Bowling Green Cafe in Castletown has been given a stay of execution and the local authority is looking into building it a new home instead of closing it down.

Castletown Commissioners gave the tenant of the cafe, Ellen Corkish, notice her lease was to be terminated because the cafe was too costly to repair.

The authority, which owns the building that houses the cafe, found there were structural problems with the main wall forming the principal support of the cafe’s lean-to type structure.

Once word of the decision filtered out petitions in paper (at the cafe) and online attracted hundreds of signatures.

Included in 463 comments made online people said they treasured the cafe which is by the bowling green and lined by flowers.

For some it has associations stretching back decades with their childhood.

Others said it is a special part of Castletown and lamented the fact it could close when Costa and Coffee Republic were actively encouraged into town.

Another said the authority has spent £400,000 in an ’ego trip’ on refurbishing the civic centre and the money would have been better spent on this.

The authority met Mrs Corkish this week and it reported on Facebook they had had ’a very positive meeting’ where the board’s position regarding the existing structure was explained.

It added: ’Both parties have expressed a willingness to identify possible solutions to replace the existing structure with a cost effective alternative.

’A further meeting will take place in a few weeks time to discuss these options further.’