The future of an Ashfield café providing work to people with disabilities remains uncertain as negotiations with the council that owns the building continue. The Rumbles Community Café, based on Sutton Lawn in Sutton-in-Ashfield, has been serving the community for 15 years but the local council is now looking at whether it can continue to "heavily subsidise" its bills.
A public meeting has been called at the café on April 15 to discuss its potential future, though this may be rearranged after Ashfield District Council said nobody could attend because the authority has entered the pre-election period known as 'purdah'. This period limits the activities that elected councillors and officers can undertake in an effort to avoid influencing the result of the elections, being held on May 4.
Tamar Roberts is the director of the café and said: "We were told that Ashfield District Council wouldn't be able to attend due to purdah, which we were not aware of before, so we're now looking into the public meeting and we'll be providing an update on that shortly. Officially, the council says it is still in negotiations but we will just have to wait and see."
