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There are calls for the Hawkinge Community Centre Charity (HCCC) to be investigated after this year’s AGM was held without inviting members of the charity to the meeting.

At the 2005 AGM, despite assurances from trustee Trevor Johns, that villagers were members of the charity, they apparently still have no say in the management of £1.8million building and are not considered to be members by the trustees.

A leaked email to the stakeholders from Karen Raeburn Community Projects Adviser (Shepway), Community Action South East Kent (CASE), and minutes to meetings in April and May 2007 have been received by the Hawkinge Gazette and the Folkestone Herald village correspondent Colin Tearle.

In the email from Karen Raeburn it states: "We do not intend to invite people (to the 2007 AGM) other than trustees and stakeholders, since this would not seem appropriate when the centre is in such a crucial stage of development."

These documents prompted Mr Tearle to contact CASE.

The email was written after the 5 April 2007 meeting of the trustees and stakeholders. At that meeting the trustees told CASE, the AGM must take place in May and “they are of the opinion that nobody has signed up as a member, so they (the trustees) are in effect the only members."

Colin Tearle said he explained about the 2005 AGM to CASE in which trustee Trevor Johns told the meeting that there was no subscription for membership and gave the assurance that all the people over 18 in Hawkinge were members.

In view of these revelations, a meeting was hurriedly arranged between Mr Tearle, the Hawkinge Partnership (HP) and CASE to discuss whether the 2007 AGM was properly called and conducted within the charity’s constitution.

Apart from members not being invited, Mr Tearle said he raised the issue that the trustees were re-elected after being nominated and seconded en-block by representatives from CASE and the HP, who themselves are not members of the charity.

Both CASE and the HP agreed to speak to the trustees with a view to holding another AGM, but Mr Tearle has now received an email from Karen Raeburn to say the trustees have told her they are writing to the Charity Commission for advice on the membership.

The email continues: "There will therefore not be notification of an EGM and/or AGM at the current time."

A perplexed Mr Tearle said: “I find it curious how the charity is conducting itself. On the surface it appears the trustees are conducting their business with little or no regard for their own constitution or public statements made by themselves.

"Further to that I find it an anathema to hold an AGM, with finances that appear to be in such a fragile state that they are asking for public money to keep the centre open, yet they didn't even manage to produce any audited accounts for the meeting.

"This simply isn't good enough, and in my view the Charity Commission should be called in to investigate, and local government officers belonging to CASE, the Hawkinge Partnership and indeed the Parish Council should distance themselves from it until these matters have been resolved."

Parish Councillor Peter Smith is angry that members of the Hawkinge Community Centre were not invited to this year's AGM of the cash strapped charity.

He said: "I am upset that members were not invited to attend the AGM.

"Both myself and David Callahan applied to be members after the 2005 AGM. I also tried to become a trustee but was refused as they said the position had been filled immediately prior to the meeting, yet it was still raised on the agenda."

The Gazette has so far been unable to contact John Heasman, the Chairman of the HCCC for his comments on the story.