Butlers Wharf chef school to close?

Butlers Wharf Chef School in London will close tomorrow unless it can find financial help from the industry to pay rent arrears totalling £106,000 for the year to March. In what office manager Nicky Sampson described as a "bombshell", the school received a letter from Southwark Council this morning to warn that it was foreclosing on the owed rent, which became due in November. The qualifications of some 90 students and the jobs of 16 staff hang in the balance, said operations director Clare Clarke. The school, which is a charity, is located in Shad Thames behind Conran's Pont de la Tour restaurant. It was allowed a rent-free grace period during its first five years. Clarke has been running the business since founder and director John Roberts left last August. There had been some possibility of European Social Funding, said Clarke. The school was also waiting on Friday for clarification of a potential takeover bid by the University of Derby, but this had not materialised although it still remained a possibility. Roberts had taken on the role of Dean of the School of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University and had been planning to set up a hotel school in Derby in affiliation with Butlers Wharf Chef School.