A CENTRE helping Brighton’s poorest families for almost 35 years could close for the last time next week.

The Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre, which provides welfare advice and day trips for hundreds of the city’s children, faces eviction on Tuesday as the lease on its Crestway Parade centre expires.

The centre has been embroiled in a financial dispute with former trustees which is being investigated by the Charity Commission.

Centre worker Giuseppina Salamone hopes the centre may be given a short landlord reprieve.

Ms Salamone said: “What will happen to all those open claims if we close? What will happen to all those trips we organise for children? What happens to all the expertise and benefits advice we can give? It all goes in the bin.”

Discussions on an alternative site will be held at a public meeting at the Hollingdean Community Centre tonight from 7pm.

The centre, which employs three workers and 15 volunteers, has 100 welfare cases open and continues to receive calls for help.

Four trade union trustees, including Tony Greenstein, who founded the centre in 1981, resigned in August.

Centre user Stella McHugh, 43, said the centre had helped her make friends, apply for benefits and get gas in her flat.

She said: “It is absolutely my lifeline. It is the one place you know you will be treated like a person not an illness and treated with respect.”

Mr Greenstein, who stepped back from running the centre on health grounds, said: “We did offer to hand over the company which holds the lease so there would be no liability to them but they refused.”

To support the centre contact 01273 540717 or alternatively you can email bhuarc_enquiries@yahoo.co.uk