£55k legal row that has divided two park cafes

The former manager of Bute Park is suing Cardiff Council for allegedly failing to deal with "bullying" by a tenant cafe owner.

- Conor Gogarty reports

Dr Julia Sas claims the owner of the Secret Garden cafe orchestrated a "campaign of misinformation" against her and that the council's inaction on this led to her resigning.

A key witness backing Dr Sas in the employment tribunal is David Le Masurier, who owns the four Pettigrew bakeries across Cardiff.

He also spent 13 years running a Pettigrew tea room in the council-owned park before closing earlier this year, a decision attributed to the pressures of running "a full-service restaurant in this day and age".

In his witness statement he alleges Secret Garden cafe owner Melissa Boothman “was actively trying to find allies who would target Dr Sas and undermine her authority and position” He also accuses her of “looking for very personal attacks” and trying to “whip up a mob” against the park manager.

Dr Sas is seeking a £55,241 payout from the council for constructive, unfair and wrongful dismissal. The council, Ms Boothman and Dr Sas declined to comment due to the ongoing case.

Spanning 130 acres, the city-centre park is one of the biggest in Wales. Dr Sas became a project manager for the park in 2009 before being promoted to its manager in 2014, a role she quit in June last year.

In 2018, Ms Boothman agreed a five-year lease to run the park cafe. In 2021 she was widely praised by the local community for her response to a spate of vandalism which saw more than 50 trees destroyed.

She fundraised more than £5,000 to plant new trees in a ‘community orchard’ which was unveiled the following year. Ms Boothman also made 6,000 meals for NHS staff during the Covid pandemic.