THE owner of a cafe in Selby is planning to give the business to the community for free and wants it to become a not-for-profit enterprise.

Robert Matthews used his own money to start up Chatterbox Community Cafe, on Finkle Street, in April this year to support the community.

He said: "My life has been an emotional rollercoaster and I wanted to use my negative experiences to help others."

Robert added that he has been "overwhelmed" by the support that the cafe has received from local residents and businesses. He now wants to turn it into a community-run project.

Before then he hopes to move the cafe to a bigger premises with rooms to hold activities, functions and interviews. His vision is that it would provide confidence building sessions, hold mental health support groups and organise other activities to help the community.

Robert plans to appoint a board of 10 directors who are willing to volunteer their time for free to the project to take over the running of the cafe.

He hopes to find 50 local businesses to fund and support these plans and is also inviting residents to donate to the project.

Robert said: "The end goal is that it's going to become a community-run project and a not-for-profit business.

"Within the next year hopefully we will have moved to a bigger premises and have a board of 10 directors that I will be appointing.

"Every single one of them people will be given my share of the business to them equally. So I will be giving away the business for free.

"The reason for that is because this is not about making money, this particular part of my life is not about making money, it is about getting as much help and support out there and in place as possible."

He added: "Ideally we could get 50 businesses to sponsor us and make it happen. The incentive for businesses is using the cafe free of charge for events and functions.

"Anyone putting money into this will have the right to see where their money has gone."

Robert added that the cafe has had many people offering to get involved and help out for free since it opened.

"We've got financial advisers, we've got addiction service professional people, mental health professionals, money management, bakers willing to make cakes, the list goes on," he said.

Meanwhile, the cafe recently organised a raffle and raised £1,095 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

It held the draw for the raffle on September 9 and as part of the event a mixture of activities took place for all the family to enjoy.