AN HISTORIC British Legion club is on the brink of closure.

The 72-year-old club in Hedon has struggled with year-on-year losses for the past decade.

Tony Bryant, Andrew Walker and Ken Tallentire, of the Hedon Royal British Legion.

A long-standing wrangle with the British Legion over ownership of their building had even prompted club members to consider disaffiliation.

However, members have now voted to keep their links with the Legion, but try to attract new members to keep the Magdalen Gate club alive.

The club's representatives have written to its 700 members to appeal for donations in a desperate bid to save the club.

Andrew Walker, chairman of the club, said the cost of being officially affiliated to the charity is high.

He said: "The club charges £14 a year per person for membership, but only keeps £2 of that. The rest goes to headquarters.

"It costs us £3.50 for a fob key, so to start with we are £1.50 down per member.

"Membership has dropped somewhat from 900 people five years ago, to 700, but we're lucky if 75 pass through the doors in a week.

"More and more elderly members are either no longer with us or just aren't fit enough to get to the club regularly and we're lacking younger members.

"Use it or lose it has become my motto."

A row broke out over the summer and the group's trustees resigned and the deeds to the building were signed over to the Legion in August this year.

The club, which bought the building as a result of fundraising, has to pay rent to the national charity.

Mr Walker said: "We are £1,000 a week down and we have little reserves left.

"But severing our links is not an option as then we would be charged rent at the full going rate."

Former trustee Ken Grey, 86, who resigned in 2003 over disagreements, said: "The club building was bought by branch members.

"In 2000, the Legion in Pall Mall listed the building as an asset belonging to them.

"We've since had to pay them rent for our own building. Normally a landlord would maintain a property, but the charity says we are responsible.

"The trustees were told they were personally liable for any claim on the insurance, for which the excess is £5,000, so they resigned.

"We are not dealing with a charitable institution anymore, we are dealing with a corporate body.

"It's created a division between the club and the branch."

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