Nucleus Arts Maidstone Hub shut down on Saturday following a long-running dispute with Maidstone Borough Council over business rates.

Staff from the Gabriel's Hill gallery and cafe took to Facebook to say a sad farewell to the artists, charities and groups which have come to call the centre home since it first opened in 2011.

Dalia Halpern-Matthews, founder of the Nucleus Arts programme, which also has centres in Rochester and Chatham, said the closure comes after the gallery was handed a business rate bill of about £109,000 by Maidstone Borough Council.

The centre has already paid £16,000 of this sum after the council said it would bring in bailiffs to collect the outstanding debt.

As a registered charity, Nucleus Arts could apply for business rate relief, which it had in its previous unit on the same road, but officers discontinued the discount when Nucleus Arts moved to its larger site in 2014.

The dispute revolves around the fact that the gallery maintained a cafe operated by a separate company on the site.

“It is just a ridiculous situation.I think it is really, really sad. We do feel completely betrayed, we feel absolutely devastated...” - Dalia Halpern-Matthews

Louise Smith, public relations officer at the council, said: “Maidstone council supports local charities, offering £3.9 million in rate relief to more than 200 charities in the borough last year.

"The operation of a café in itself is not a charitable purpose unless there is a wider community benefit.

“To award charitable relief to a café that does not provide any wider community benefit would be beyond the scope of legislation and unfair to other businesses operating in the area, who are expected to pay business rates.”

This is something Mrs Halpern-Matthews, disputes. She said the cafe was a fluid space actively used by Nucleus Art’s education programme, with the lion's share of profits from the cafe ploughed back into these initiatives.

She said: “We wanted to use the centre as a focus for regeneration of the area with 100% rate relief. We did exactly what as agreed and opened it on the first of March last year and it has been fantastically successful.

“They started backtracking within months of us opening. We have been in meeting after meeting and had shown them proof of how we helping people, but they just didn’t believe it.

“It is just a ridiculous situation.I think it is really, really sad. We do feel completely betrayed, we feel absolutely devastated.”

Wellwishers have flooded Nucleus Arts' Facebook page with messages of support.

Lisa Pegram, from Aylesford, said: "So sad to hear that Maidstone council are not supporting local artists and craftswomen/men! Your cafe and gallery were a little ray of sunshine in what has turned into a bit of a bleak town centre! Best wishes with future projects.

Paul Matthias added: "Such a shame. We can demonise the council but then councils have hard decisions to make especially when central government is tightening the purse strings. Well done for all the good that you have done in the community."

Maidstone council supports local charities, offering £3.9 million in rate relief to more than 200 charities in the borough last year.