Weston-super-Mare’s British Legion respite hotel – which offers short stays and support for war veterans and their families – is under threat of closure.
Legion bosses have announced Somerset Legion House in Beach Road could close next year as part of a restructuring of the charity’s operations.
The centre, on the seafront, was opened in October 2007 by the Duke of Kent and cost £6.7 million to build.
It has 47 rooms and caters for up to 75 people by providing short breaks for personnel, families and children connected to the armed forces at little or no cost.
The charity is now consulting with staff on proposals to close the Weston centre along with other ones in Southport, Bridlington and Portrush, in Northern Ireland.
The legion says the move would save millions and allow the charity to look at how it is structured and remain able to continue to serve its forces community in future years.
It also says that the review will allow it to look at whether charity funds are being spent effectively on the needs of those seeking help.
The legion says over the last three years it has seen a change in the support needed by the armed forces community.
Since 2016 it has seen a 20 per cent increase in people needing basic support with housing, financial issues, mental health and well-being and mobility.
In this time, the average expenditure per household through the legion’s immediate needs funding has risen 45% from £900 to £1330.
In recent years the regulatory framework in which charities operate has also become more robust, putting increased pressure on the charity’s existing resources.
The charity plans to invest more in personalised support by funding external specialist and localised organisations and reinvigorating its care work with older veterans.
It will also enhance regional and local campaigning and remembrance activities.
The Royal British Legion’s Director General, Charles Byrne, said: “The community we serve and our supporters deserve the very best from us, and it is our responsibility to ensure the legion is providing relevant services that meet the needs of today’s Armed Forces community, and that the generous donations given to us by the public are used in the most impactful way.
"We are taking this opportunity to make the legion fit for the next 100 years.
“People are coming to us with multiple needs where simply providing transactional support is not the long-term solution.
“We are seeing desperate people at their lowest ebb, people that can’t afford to pay their rent or feed their families, and we must prioritise our funds based on the most urgent calls for help.
“We are putting forward proposals to ensure the charity can address the challenges ahead of us.
“These include increasing resource in order to better personalise our support and build plans to fit each individual’s needs, bolstering our care services for older members of our community, and grant funding external organisations who are providing specialist or localised support which meet the needs of our community in a way the legion cannot through our existing services.
“However, to start more of this work we do need to stop doing something else, which has led us to put forward proposals on our four hotels and home maintenance service.
“We do not make these proposals lightly and we are well aware of the impact the proposals could have on our staff who have made hugely valuable contributions to the charity’s work.
"Over the coming months we will be ensuring our staff’s voices are heard and that they play a vital part in the decisions that we face.”
Consultation around the legion’s current proposals is expected to last until early 2020, when the decisions will be announced.
It is understood that around 150 jobs could be at risk as part of the changes.
