The owners of a beloved harbour restaurant gutted by a fire have been threatened with eviction as they refuse to clear the site.

Whitstable Fish Market and the Crab and Winkle eatery in the town’s harbour was destroyed by a blaze last May, after flames spread into the building from a neighbouring cockle shed.

Peter and Elizabeth Bennett, the husband-and-wife pair who run the business, say they are at a stalemate with Canterbury City Council, which owns the premises, over the repair works.

Officials from the authority say they have been in a position to start work on the exterior of the structure since December.

However, the couple are not allowing them access to the site as they want more help with meeting the cost of the repairs on the inside.

This week, the restaurateurs have been told their lease will be terminated if they continue to stop workers’ attempts to begin the repairs and fail to clear their items from the building.

“We felt sick when we saw the letter - it came out of the blue,” Mrs Bennett said.

“Talk about putting the cherry on the cake.

“We still have eight years on our lease and we have been good tenants.”

An incident report from the fire service revealed the blaze on May 26 was caused accidentally by sparks from a grinder used by a workman - who was working outside near the former cockle shed.

The sparks reportedly entered the building through a gap in the wall.

It is understood work was being carried out by contractors on behalf of the city council to build a new car park in the harbour.

However, authority bosses say a more in-depth investigation by its insurers is ongoing to determine the cause.

Mrs Bennett says her insurance company is working with the council’s - but that she faces having to fork out £10,000 to clear out all of the walls and floors on the first level.

“We’re in a catch-22 situation,” she said.

“We have spent £1 million making the place perfect over the last 11 years.

“We’re lost and we think about how can we be treated so roughly.

“I don’t have a livelihood and it is the only work I know.

“But we can’t understand why it’s our responsibility to pay.”

Mrs Bennett says the quote she and her husband have received to put the inside of the building back together is about £2 million.

However, her insurance company has a ceiling of £1.2 million - so the rest of the money will have to come out of their own pockets.

Due to the state of their finances, the couple are unsure how much of the remaining £800,000 they can put towards the repairs.

“It might not come out singing and dancing as it was before, but there is enough money to get the place restored and some earning power in for us,” Mrs Bennett continued.

“But we’re adamant we can’t pay the £10,000 to have the place stripped out.

“It is not an option as we would go from nothing in the company’s account and put it into debt.”

In a letter seen by the Gazette, the authority’s head of property and regeneration, Richard Hall, tells the Bennetts: “If you do not permit access to the premises and clear your items as identified in this letter, then we may, as the landlord, consider it has become impossible or impractical to reinstate the property and accordingly operate our right to terminate the lease by giving notice to you of the same.”

Authority spokesman Rob Davies stresses officials “have been trying to negotiate with the Bennetts for some time without success, and so we sent the formal letter”.

“Of course we are sympathetic to the Bennetts’ situation, which is why we have been trying to work with them, but we have now reached the position where matters need to move on and we can get this vital repair work underway,” he added.

“We have been ready since before Christmas to do this work to the Crab and Winkle restaurant and are keen to get cracking because a restaurant and fish market are essential to the vitality of a working harbour.

“It should be remembered that as part of any insurance claim, the costs relevant to each party sit with their own insurance company and the cover they have in place.”