A POPULAR family-run cafe is planning to build a Viking-inspired shelter for customers.

The outdoor seating area is planned for 52 Broadway coffee shop, with owners and customers hoping they will get permission from the council for the shelter to be built by Christmas.

Theresa Burn owns the coffee shop, which she runs with her family including her talented daughter Elle who bakes the showstopping cakes.

The family also run the hairdressers and barbers next door, Broadway 50/50, where Theresa's daughter Molly works. The family have lived in Fulford for more than 30 years.

The council has already received letters from 58 people in support of the plans.

One customer said the cafe is a "superb business that has kept me going during lockdown".

Another wrote that the coffee shop is a "fabulous place [with staff] who care about the community and the locals they serve. Fulford is in desperate need for this."

And another letter said: "Since it opened the cafe has been central to the local community."

Theresa said: "We have a lot of people coming in who use wheelchairs or come in from care homes - it's a community coffee shop."

The shop currently has a temporary canopy, which Theresa says is a challenge to put up and take down daily as it takes an hour to put together.

"We just need the outdoor shelter. When we are open the demand is there.

"We love what we do. We love cheering people up."

She said that during the pandemic the business has still been making cakes to order - including 100th birthday cakes, 'non-wedding' cakes for couples whose weddings have been cancelled and 'bouqcakes' of cupcakes that look like a bouquet of flowers.

She added that the coffee shop has even received orders from people living in America who want cakes delivered to family and friends living in York as a gift.

It will take four to six weeks to build the shelter and Theresa hopes the application will be approved quickly to allow the coffee shop to reopen for customers to sit in as soon as lockdown is lifted.

She said: "People love it here, they want to stay local.

"All we want for Christmas is to reopen with the new shelter built."

View the planning application at planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications reference 20/02157/FUL.