A South London charity for disabled residents feels “betrayed” by the local council after they claim the authority told them to vacate their building as the lease isn’t being renewed.

Joanne Munn, 59, has experienced a gradual decline in hearing since she was a child.

The resident is currently the CEO of Bromley Experts by Experience (XbyX), a charity led and staffed by disabled people to provide support to individuals living with disabilities.

The service allows people to try out adaptive equipment in its centre and aims to strengthen the voices of disabled residents in the community.

Ms Munn told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “All of our staff, volunteers and board are disabled people.

"We provide a range of services to empower and support local disabled people and carers using our own lived experience to support them.”

The service was set up in 2012 and currently operates in Lewis House in Beckenham.

Ms Munn said the charity originally held a tender from the council to operate in the building until the end of 2022, with the option to extend the contract by two years at that point.

She said: “We had been talking to the council and they said that they couldn’t see a reason why they wouldn’t extend it.

"Then suddenly, one day out of the blue in 2021, a local resident contacted us and said they had heard that our building was going to be knocked down.”

Bromley Council documents from a meeting in June 2021 said officers had begun conversations with adult services to relocate XbyX from Lewis House.

This was reportedly done while the authority was considering building a set of 26 flats on the site.

Upon learning the plans, Ms Munn says she arranged an emergency meeting with the council.

She claims: “They said there was absolutely no way they were going to knock the building down. Then they said they were doing some sort of feasibility study for the car park next to the building, so they said it was a miscommunication.”

Ms Munn said council officers told her that XbyX would be given an equally suitable or better premises if Lewis House was to be vacated, and asked for a list of what a potential new building would need for the charity to run.

She said that the service was later told in October 2022 that the charity’s contract for Lewis House would only be extended by one year instead of two.

Council documents from a month after this meeting show that the Lewis House site was still being considered as an area to deliver council housing.

They added that the authority would be saving an estimated £180,000 in maintaining the building if it were to be redeveloped for housing.

Ms Munn said she was later told in January 2023 that XbyX would be protected and options for a new premises were being assessed, before being told to move the disabled equipment back into council offices at a meeting in March.

She said: “I asked what we should do and they said, ‘Nothing. We’re not going to support you anymore. We’re not going to commission you’.

"It was like a complete bolt out of the blue. I can’t tell you how I felt in that meeting. It was like someone had hit me with a sledgehammer. It was so unexpected.”

Ms Munn said the disability service given by XbyX was to be taken back in-house to be provided by the council, and that she had taken the authority’s assurances out of context.

She said the charity was asked to move out of Lewis House by the end of the year.

She said: “It was a shock, complete shock, I just couldn’t believe it. Just anger and betrayal. I felt utterly betrayed.”

She added she fears the charity won’t be able to srvive without a physical location.

Ms Munn claims the price for the charity to privately rent another premises could be double what they were paying at Lewis House, which has been made more difficult by their lack of funding.

She claims Bromley Council told her it wasn’t suitable for council officers to make promises to the charity that it would be relocated, and that the authority had no statutory obligation to provide those services.

Garnet Frost, 70, is a resident who lives directly opposite Lewis House. The local has recently started a petition to save the building and says it’s approaching 500 signatures.

Mr Frost told the LDRS: “I fully support what [XbyX] are trying to do and I’m really quite shocked by the way the council is deliberately trying to shut them down.”

Bromley Council was approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.