DEAL'S Red Cross Centre is to be closed because a disagreement between volunteers and managers has led to a massive reduction in the number of helpers.

Many disillusioned volunteers gave up their fight to save the British Red Cross services in Deal at the end of last year when they staged a walk out because they thought the charity had become too commercial.

The medical loans service, one of the only services still operating from the Deal centre, now needs to find a new home if wheelchairs and other equipment is to remain available for local people.

Bob Cass, community services manager based in Canterbury, said: "I am still trying to find alternative premises in Deal for the loan service. We'd like to keep it in Deal."

The closure of the centre comes after restructuring of the British Red Cross to become regionalised, taking power away from individual centres.

Kathleen Bowers, centre organiser for five years, resigned as a member after 17 years along with several other members in a 'mass resignation' on December 31.

She said: "They basically abused their volunteers and we all walked out. The Red Cross simply forgot that the majority of the society is volunteers. They don't listen."

According to Ms Bowers, the rot set in when they took the responsibility for the centres away from the centre organisers and introduced assistant community service managers.

She added: "They took our say away. You can't run a little rural centre the same as you can run one in a big city."

Another former centre organiser, Jean McCully, said: "It's not the Red Cross I joined."

A volunteer for the British Red Cross for 21 years, Mrs McCully is now disappointed at the way the organisation is changing.

She said: "I feel sorry for Deal. It was a busy little centre - some times we had no wheelchairs to hire out because we were so busy.

"Our members redecorated the centre from top to bottom. We built it up, bought equipment and raised funds. We came such a long way. The people of Deal were so darn good to us that it makes me very cross."

Mr Cass said: "In any organisation when reorganisation takes place people become unhappy with the way it is happening.

"Our whole thrust is volunteers. The problem in the past has been that Deal ran Deal as a closed shop. We have been trying to look in a much more helicopter view to meet the needs of Kent."

One of the former volunteers' concerns is that the ambulance bought with donations from Deal people was taken away from the centre.

But the charity insists they needed to put vehicles where they could be best used as many ambulances were getting too old.

Me Cass said: "All it means is they have to go a little further along the road to collect a vehicle. It will still be used in Deal for the people of Deal."

He added: "We are looking for a better way of using resources and people skills. Because we have limited resources we need to use them wisely.

"There will continue to be a Red Cross service in Deal. Domicillary care is still going strong in Deal. We are still looking for more volunteers, and we need volunteers who can think regionally not just locally."