Dan's Delights leaves unit after lease dispute with council

An ice-cream business has ceased trading from its original unit following a lease dispute with the council.

Dan’s Delights confirmed on social media that from Monday, October 12, the business would no longer be operating from its site in College Park, Copnor.

This comes after the owner, Dan Harding, was outbid for the tenancy which has resulted in him having to relocate from the unit he has occupied for the past six years.

The 37-year-old previously told The News how rent prices for the unit have risen from £300 to £650 in the past three years, with soaring prices of stock and staff wages meaning he was unable to meet the expected rates to retain the site.

In a social media post earlier this month, he wrote: “Thanks for everyone’s support and custom, thanks to all my staff over the years. Appreciate you all, this wasn’t ever a good bye it’s just a dynamic of my business moving forward.

“We have vans, events, rounds, trays, and these are what the college park was built off the back of. I am still caught up in legal issues with Portsmouth City Council , I will publicly state that I do not in my opinion believe we have been treated fairly and I fully intend to fight this until my last breath.”