A VOLUNTEER-run cafe that has donated thousands of pounds is now being charged £25,000-a-year in rent by hospital bosses, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

The League of Friends has had cafeteria space on level one of the John Radcliffe Hospital’s West Wing for what it said was a peppercorn rent for five years and donated its takings to pay for extra specialist medical equipment.

But now the hospital trust has made it sign a £25,000 rent agreement. That rent will be waived if the league gives at least as much in donations, otherwise the hospital can terminate the lease.

The Oxford Mail uncovered details of the lease using the Freedom of Information Act.

Last year the league – said to be “disappointed” at the move – donated more than £63,000 to the Oxford University Hospitals Trust.

But in March the charity had to close its second hospital premises, a tea bar, in order to ‘balance the books’.

League manager David Simpson said it was struggling to get enough volunteers to staff both the sites.

Mr Simpson said: “The staffing consideration, if anything, weighed more heavily than the financial balancing in the trustees’ deliberations, even though we were disappointed by the trust’s will to embed our gifting commitment in the lease where before they had established a peppercorn rent.”

The Oxford Mail originally questioned the trust about a rental agreement two months ago.

OUH director of estates Mark Trumper said at the time: “(The League) provide a service for visitors to our hospitals and through their volunteers help raise money to support our work. The trust does not charge the League of Friends rent for the space they use within our trust.”

The document obtained by the Oxford Mail clearly says the trust would charge rent from this April. Neither Mr Trumper nor the trust itself would answer further questions about this last night.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: “The most important thing to remember is it is through voluntary effort the league not only raises a lot of money for the hospital but gives a good service and support to patients and their families.

“The volunteers who dedicate their time and effort to the hospital and its patients could be forgiven for finding the whole saga at best leaves an unpleasant taste in their mouths. I think the hospital should stick with their commitment to give the space rent free.”

According to the terms of the lease if the charity does not meet its rent, after 15 days the hospital can ‘re-enter’ the premises and the agreement will be broken.

One member of hospital staff, who asked not to be named, claimed pressure had been put on the trust because of the complex Private Finance Initiative scheme.

The OUH faces an annual bill of £46.6m to pay back loans taken out to fund developments such as the West Wing, Children’s Hospital and Oxford Cancer Centre. But it has to show auditors it is making ‘best use’ of its space in order to generate income to pay back its loans.

Patients Association chief executive Katherine Murphy said: “Whilst we are not able to comment on individual cases of this nature, it would seem that this is another indicator of just how hard the Government’s so-called efficiency savings are hitting the NHS.”