A community café that provided a “vital support network” for parents was closed with just 15 minutes notice last week.

Beany Boos café, in the Richard Smeaton Centre, Whitton, opened with no formal contract in June 2015 by Louise Nagle on a trial basis with the St Edmunds Church parish.

She was told on Friday afternoon the café must close with immediate effect and its customers would have to leave.

The café was used predominantly by parents from St Edmunds Catholic Primary School, including mother-of-three Rhonda Groombridge. She said it was vital in building up a support network of parents.

Your Local Guardian:

Parents and children disappointed at the cafe's closure

The Diocese said it has offered them use of Beany Boos the use of the church’s crypt at the same rate but that this had not been taken up.

Mrs Groombridge told the Richmond & Twickenham Times: “I go there every week and we have all made really great friends here.

“It is a great way of meeting the mums and building up that support network. It stops us all being isolated.

“Sometimes the kids go there after school if their mums are stuck in traffic or are a bit late as it is a safe place for them to wait. It just has so many benefits.

“Yes, it is a business but it’s such an important part of the community. Louise is very distressed about it and so are all of her customers.”

Your Local Guardian:

Sandy Mullen, who is registered disabled, said the café has been a vital place for her to make friends and socialise.

She said: “It’s a place where mums can come together and there is no other place in the area like it.

“It was a place for me to make friends and before this was here I was so isolated.

“I just can’t believe this is happening.”

Two online petitions on Change.org to save the café gained 364 and 77 supporters respectively.

Ms Nagle said she had been in contract discussions with the parish but they had not gone well and things came to a head on Friday.

She said: “I offered to pay rent until the end of the month but it was not allowed.

“The mums desperately want the centre to stay open and kicking them and the children out with 15 minutes notice was awful.”

Ms Nagle added she had no hope she would be able to reopen the cafe on the same site.

A spokeswoman from the Roman Catholic Diocese, which is responsible for the parish, said permission for the business to use the premises had been withdrawn and Beany Boos was asked to leave because of non-payment of rent.

She added: “A formal agreement for the use of space in the Church Crypt had been offered to the business, at the same concessionary rate, and remains on offer; however, it has not been taken up by Beany Boos.

“The parish continues to look at ways to provide a social space for mothers and children on a non-commercial basis.”