AN OUTRAGED cafe owner has launched a petition in a desperate bid to stay at her slot in the Oak Mall.

Elizabeth McCluskey, who runs the Chicane Cafe in the centre, was stunned after she was told to leave her prime pitch.

She is being moved on to allow work to start on a £1 million programme to replace flood-damaged flooring.

The Greenock businesswoman accepts that the work — which will be carried out at night and take seven months — needs to be done but wants to return to her present location afterwards.

But bosses have offered her alternative accommodation in a unit at the other end of the mall and say she can’t automatically go back to the original site.

Elizabeth, 41, says the move will damage her business.

She told the Tele: “I’ve been given notice to leave by 15 January. I’m not a permanent lease holder and they can ask me to leave within 30 days, that is in my lease.

“But I’ve been asked to move through no fault of my own.

“The floor was badly damaged by the floods and my business has been affected by this as well.

“I had breakdown damage with a machine, then I had barriers up round the cafe for eight weeks. I want to come back to this space after the work’s been done. I’m going to lose business as the other unit is not as central.

“It’s going to cost me more in the long run.” Elizabeth has been running the cafe for three years and feels she’s not been given enough time to make a proper decision over the future of the business.

But customers have been swift to support the local trader by signing her petition.

Liam Campbell, 31, of Port Glasgow, said: “I’m here all the time, I come in five or six days a week.

“It’s shocking that Elizabeth has been asked to move and that she cannot even get back here. It’s an absolute disgrace.” Another customer, William Burns, said: “The service at the cafe is excellent and very friendly.” But Oak Mall bosses insist the new pitch will cost exactly the same and say they are working closely with the cafe owner.

Shopping centre manager Claire Jefcoate said: “The mall must be cleared by the end of January and overall, the work will take seven months.

“We cannot make any guarantees to temporary licensees that they will be returned to the exact same space.

“A month’s notice has been served, which is normal practice, and we have offered accommodation at exactly the same cost.

“We have offered alternative accommodation and will have to confirm within the next few days.”