Marston Legion club faces fight for survival (From Oxford Mail)

Marston Legion club faces fight for survival

6:50am Friday 9th October 2009 in

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A Royal British Legion club in Oxford with more than 500 members is facing closure over an unpaid £52,700 tax bill.

The club in Marston will be forced to shut its doors on Wednesday unless enough money can be raised to save it.

The club, in Hadow Road, has been a social hub for ex-servicemen and residents for 51 years.

Some members fear the closure could also bring an end to the Marston branch of the RBL, which last year raised £8,434 for the Poppy appeal. Six people also face losing their jobs.

Harry Bridges, 88, a Second World War veteran who lives in Cromwell Close, said: “It has been a real Godsend, because it gives us somewhere to come and meet friends. We can’t go out a lot now and this is the one place we can go for entertainment.”

Mr Bridges, a former Lance Corporal in the Royal Tank Regiment, has been a member of the RBL in Marston for 63 years.

He added: “The club means a hell of a lot to me, it’s my life.”

The club originally owed £46,000 in Capital Gains Tax after selling land for housing for £900,000.

It spent £750,000 building and kitting out a new clubhouse. The rest was eaten up by debts and loans, including running costs and money owed to the brewery.

But the tax bill has built up interest since it arrived in 2007 and the club, which is run as a business and does not get charity tax breaks, now owes HM Revenue & Customs £52,700.

The club has admitted a previous committee received the bill in 2007, but failed to pay and it now has just £10,000 in the bank.

Club chairman Derrick Lancaster, 65, said: “We hope we can raise the cash, but if we can’t, we would hope for a bit of leniency.

“We have customers in their 70s and 80s and this is their point of contact with the world.”

Committee member Faye Cullen said: “The club is the heartbeat of the community and if it closed it would be devastating to the lives of some of our members.”

The club is asking members for donations, but also hopes the wider community will donate or loan money to keep it open.

Peter Boyle, Oxfordshire’s RBL community fundraiser, said: “I wouldn’t want this club to close, they have a very active branch attached to it and it would be a great blow.”

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: “It's clear the present committee has been landed with a big problem from the past and I’m going to talk to their accountants and will plead their case with revenue and customs.”

Anyone who can help the RBL club should call 01865 243991.