A cafe has been forced to close after a rail operator demanded a greater slice of the profits, its owner claims.

Bean and Gone had been open on platform two at Witham rail station for the last three-and-a-half years until March 31.

Owner Sharon Chamberlain claims she had to close because of the increased demands made by Greater Anglia, but the company disputes this.

Mrs Chamberlain, 53, said: “Greater Anglia have insisted I pay because they think £20,000 a year is not enough rent.

“They are asking for an extra 15 per cent of my total profits.

“As a small independent business, it makes me sick to my stomach that they can treat people this way.”

A Greater Anglia spokesman said: “We are now going through the tendering process to select a new tenant, who will be confirmed in due course.

“The rental is not automatically raised at contract end and was not done so on this occasion and any suggestion to the contrary is inaccurate.

“It was entirely the decision of the tenant at Bean and Gone to vacate the premises when the contract ended."