Rumbles Community Cafe: Fears Ashfield venue faces eviction after rent increased from £50 to £7,000

A Nottinghamshire community cafe at risk of closure has urged the local authority to “sit around the table”.

Rumbles Community Cafe at Sutton Law in Sutton-in-Ashfield provides work opporunities for people with learning disabilities and has operated from the popular park for 16 years.

However, it’s been embroiled in a row with Ashfield District Council lasting almost a year over how much it pays in rent.

The cafe, as a charitable organisation, has paid a rate of about £50 per year to lease its home from Ashfield District Council, which is changing the rent to a commercial rate of £7,000.

Negotiations to extend the lease have been ongoing since last September when the cafe was originally told about rent increases.

The authority is also asking the charity to fund all utility costs for the building and to take on the running of an on-site public toilet.

Cafe bosses have accepted the rental raise but say they cannot agree to the toilet demand due to complexities with liability insurance.

They also say the toilets are not just used by Rumbles’ customers and should be the responsibility of the council as its landlord.

However, after months of unsuccessful negotiations, the authority has tabled this deal as a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

Its leader says legal action leading to eviction will come if there is no agreement.

But fearing closure, almost 5,000 people have signed a petition calling on the council not to evict the community cafe.

Gina Dolan, charity manager for Rumbles, said: “I’d like the council to sit around the table and discuss what we actually do for the community.

“It needs to get to know our beneficiaries and how much input goes into them and the community we work for.

“The council is looking at us as a commercial venue but it’s far more than that.

“We’re open every day working long hours and we help people from schools, with learning disabilities, disadvantaged people to get work and life skills.”

She added: “We’re quite prepared to pay more, we understand times are difficult, but we aren’t looking after the toilets. That’s not our responsibility in a public building.”

Chad Tesoriere lives with a rare form of Chromosome deletion and worked at the cafe when it first opened.

He still attends every Thursday with his mum Amanda Quinn and said: “The council isn’t listening to us.

“Why would you want to shut a community cafe down for people with special needs?

“I worked here for a long time and got taught a lot by the team who work really hard. Cooking, cleaning, and things I didn’t know a lot about.”

His mum Amanda, 56, added: “It feels familiar for him with friends and staff and he feels comfortable. He looks forward to coming every week. It’s absolutely priceless.”

Annette Weightnan, 78, has been attending Rumbles since it opened 16 years ago and brings her disabled son Mark most days.

She has celebrated wedding anniversaries, birthdays and other life events at the cafe and says the staff go above and beyond.

“It’s a wonderful place to come. They treat everybody so well and we’ve seen so many people grow and develop to become full people with good careers,” she said.

“Isn’t it right they have that chance? They wouldn’t get it without places like this.”

But the council says the cafe has declined “highly-subsidised” terms for a new tenancy.

Council leader Jason Zadrozny said: “We have offered a new, charitable rate which is significantly reduced [compared to the market rate].

“At this time, and in fairness to all other cafe operators, we wanted to increase it slightly.

“We’re still in talks with their solicitors and our legal teams and we’re issuing court proceedings because their lease has come to an end.

“We’re hopeful they’ll still come to the table because, in fairness, we’re still offering them a reduced rent but we want them to pay their own utilities and cleaning bills.

“In this day and age, I think that’s fair. They’re a business, they make a profit and the council can’t continue to subsidise them.”

A council spokesmperson added: “The council has a duty to obtain the best value for taxpayers and the new terms offered are extremely favourable.

“The council remains committed to safeguarding public services such as the toilet facilities.”