There are fears community groups may lose out when a regeneration project gets under way.

Clients of the The Gateway in Rushenden Road need to find new homes before the building is demolished in August 2014 to make way for up to 250 homes.

Representatives of the site are unhappy with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which is overseeing the project, for what they see as a lack of plans to include a suitable replacement.

Manager at The Gateway, Carol Stewart, said current proposals are for a, “small school with a small room for community use”.

She said: “We wouldn’t expect something as big as the Gateway, but it needs to be big enough so that it can serve the various groups that want to use it.”

A spokesman for the HCA said since the Gateway was set up, Castle Connections, the Sheppey Hall, Ladybird Children’s Centre and the Community House in Rushenden have opened and could provide a home for the exiled organisations.

Mrs Stewart responded: “Can you imagine them running forklift classes in there? Can they have a boxing ring there? It wouldn’t work.”

The Swale Skills and Tutorial Centre, which uses the Gateway to teach teenagers excluded from mainstream education, would also need to relocate.

Mrs Stewart went on to say a new facility would be needed to serve Rushenden once the homes are built.

She said: “We have not had any grants for three years, apart from £300 towards the cost of a dishwasher. We are fully self-funding, all the others are very grant based.”

“We do understand this needs to be knocked down but when they build a new one it will be fully grant-funded.”

The Rev Tim Hall, a trustee of the Gateway, said: “We don’t want the site to become a vast area of housing with no facilities, no jobs and no hope.”

A public show of support is planned to be held at the centre on Saturday, December 14 from 10am to 11am.