'Complete loss' for shops after town roof incident
Independent businesses have said they suffered a "complete loss" of earnings after a town centre was closed when a man climbed onto a building roof.
Ipswich Buttermarket and the surrounding area was cordoned off on Thursday from 04:35 BST after initial reports of a jewellery burglary before reports of the man on a building roof.
The incident was resolved around at about 13:40 and police confirmed a man had been charged in connection with the incident.
However, many businesses made a decision to remain closed for the day.
'Lost wages'
Police were initially called to Carat's Jewellers in the Buttermarket and among the affected businesses was the Bonbon bakery and cafe.
Stuart Calder, director of Bonbon, arrived at the cafe at about 08:00 but was unable to open.
"Once it got past 12:00 there was no financial reason to open," he explained.
"We hadn't got any prep done, cooked any jacket potatoes, hadn't done any sausage rolls.
"If we had got access at 12:15 or 12:30 by the time we would have been open it would have been 14:00.
"Even when we did get access there was no lunchtime trade anymore, there were no customers so we would have opened up, turned everything on, used a lot of electricity and made no money."
Mr Calder estimated that the business lost about £1,000 and that he would not be able to make this back.
"It's not just me, the staff have all lost hours and wages," he added.
'A complete loss'
Rebecca Cockett, owner of Mama Bear Cake Bar on The Walk, attempted to get some of her stock into the store when she arrived but was turned away by police.
"I was thinking that I could come in, do some baking and prep then be ready for whenever it did get dealt with but I couldn't get anywhere near it," she explained.
"As a small business I was quite worried as we rely on a good trade each day to keep us going."
Ms Cockett estimated she lost £500 and many of Thursday's cakes and perishable goods were wasted.
"That's a complete loss," she added.
'60% lost take'
Rob Darling, who did not want where he worked in the town included, said his employer had lost a substantial amount.
"There's quite a few businesses that lost quite a lot of take - there's about 60% of the day's take gone," he explained.
"Companies aren't going to be able to write this off like it's nothing."
'We are all strong'
An assistant at Dial Lane Books who wanted to be referred to as Jonesy said she did not want the incident put people off coming into Ipswich town centre.
"We're really upset that we've lost a day's earnings and the same for all our neighbours," she said.
"There is no positive side but I would like to say that we are all strong," she said.
"There are a lot of strong independent businesses here and Ipswich is still a lovely charming town to come to."
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