ST JOHN Ambulance is leaving Deal and closing at the end of March after 73 years with a division in the town.

The building on the corner of Freemen’s Way and Mill Hill will be sold. The announcement has left members and officers distraught.

Superintendent of the Deal and Betteshanger division, Irene Walters, said: “No one is happy about the decision and we are all very upset.

“But I am not surprised. It was inevitable and we have been waiting for the axe to fall. The trouble is that we can’t get people to volunteer.

“Nearly every other voluntary organisation is in the same boat. It is a fact of life, yet it doesn’t make it any easier."

In November St John county headquarters proposed a review of the division and met the management committee in Deal.

It was agreed there was an ageing adult membership, with neither Badgers nor Cadets at the branch in Mill Hill.

Headquarters reported the division would be unlikely to show any real significant growth in either recruitment, charitable work or commercial activity.

Mrs Walters said there were only nine members at the Deal and Betteshanger division, with four on duties in Deal, attending Deal Tri events, school fetes and English Heritage events.

She added: “Our home has nearly gone, but St John is still around. I asked for our name to be kept and our members will go to the new Ramsgate, Deal and district branch, meeting at Ramsgate."

“Organisations like Deal Tri will still have St John cover and I have written to all the people who hire our hall to tell them about the closing.”

Mrs Walters, who has been superintendent for 20 years, said the branch in its heyday had 40 members.