Scarborough Borough Council has responded to claims it didn't do enough to help save Whitby's Star Inn the Harbour restaurant.
The Michelin star eatery announced last week that it is closing and blamed a lack of council support during COVID for the closure.
Councillor Liz Colling says the council had been working with the business.
The Star Inn the Harbour is to close this week with restaurateur, Andrew Pern, putting the blame for its closure firmly at the door of Scarborough Borough Council.
He says a lack of support from the council during COVID is the main reason for the closure. In a statement released last week Mr Pern said:
“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we have decided to close The Star Inn the Harbour,"
"We have let our hearts rule our heads for many months now; and this decision is totally and absolutely a business one that has come from a number of factors.
"We could hide behind the effects of the Covid pandemic, which have affected the hospitality industry as a whole across the UK over the past few years.
"But the sad truth is that the single main reason we are closing is the almost utter lack of support we have received from Scarborough Borough Council during Covid - just two months' Covid business support.
"The most damaging and miserable fact that marks their card is that they took rent from us and most other businesses in the town during lockdown when we didn't have a penny coming in - how greedy and shortsighted is that in a place which relies heavily on tourism and hospitality?
"We should not really have been surprised by their lack of support as we tried to work, albeit unsuccessfully, with Scarborough Borough Council from when we first started developing The Star Inn the Harbour in 2016 and then from the day we opened the restaurant.
"It has been a continuous battle as all the positive factors that swayed us to be involved initially have never come to fruition - if anything they have damaged our chances of survival rather than encouraged them, and, coming into winter and with the council's decision to not help us in anyway, we will bring this Whitby chapter to a close for the time being."
Councillor Janet Jefferson says the authority did what it could during the pandemic.
The Star Inn the Harbour, which opened in June, 2017, is part of the Star Group of Restaurants, which includes the Michelin star-listed The Star at Harome, The Star Inn the City and The Winter Hütte, York.
Whitby's Star Inn the Harbour will close on November 12th.
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