A CAFE next to the River Severn may have to close if a new owner cannot be found.

The lease for Cafe Severn on the Quay in Grandstand Road in Worcester runs out at the end of October having already been extended in March and a new owner is yet to be found.

Worcester City Council said it would be advertising the building on a three-year lease and admitted it may have to close if a replacement tenant is not found.

Disappointed owner Chris Wise said he would not continue running the riverside cafe after eight years at the helm and said the decision to leave was initially not his choice.

He said: "The council came to us and said would you carry on until the end of October which we have done.

"They then came back again and said they still don't know what they're doing with the building.

"They told us the lease would end in October and we would have to retender if we wanted to say.

"Even if the lease did carry on we probably wouldn't have stayed anyway.

"We do alright in the summer but we start losing money at this time of year so we thought we would walk away having earned a bit of money for a change.

"It seems like we are giving up on it but it wasn't our choice initially."

A spokesman for Worcester City Council said: “The current lease on Severn Café is due to expire at the end of October.

"As the current tenant has indicated they do not wish to renew it, the city council will shortly be advertising the premises with a view to letting it on a three-year lease agreement.

"The café may be closed until a new tenant is found."

The council's decision to offer the building on a three-year lease is because the whole of the riverside - including the Cafe Severn - falls within one of the new areas marked for development in the City Centre Masterplan launched this week.

The ambitious plans show the council's hope to make the city's riverside an international tourist destination.

The city council said it had "bigger and better" plans for the cafe which have now been dwarfed by the even bigger - and wider - aspirations of the masterplan.

The future of the cafe was discussed by the city council's income generation committee at a meeting on Tuesday (October 9).

The city council receives money as owner of the building as well as part of its revenue.

Councillor Roger Knight urged the committee to do something sooner rather than later and said the council could end up "wasting a decade" if it does not start finding a new use for the cafe.