A MARLBOROUGH charity that has enjoyed more than 30 years of working with a town in The Gambia has been forced to close its headquarters and drastically cut their trustee numbers because of unsustainable administration costs.

This week spelled a new era for the Marlborough Brandt Group, which has been twinned with the town of Gunjur in the country, after they closed their Bath Road office after 14 years of operating on Friday.

A week earlier at their annual general meeting their trustee numbers fell from nine to three, the director Karen Bulsara resigned and they discontinued their Wiltshire Global Education Centre (WGEC) - which has taken teachers to The Gambia and brought teaching about the world to schools across the county and further afield.

However the re-elected trustees, Janneke Blokland, Lilli Loveday and Alex Davies, believe the future is still bright for the charity and they will continue to develop their successful small loans scheme helping businesses in Gunjur, stopping young Gambians taking the dangerous route to Europe and continuing school trips there.

"This has been a very difficult decision but for the future of the charity it unfortunately had to be done - we do a lot of good things here and that will still continue," said Mr Davies.

"Everyone that has contributed to our cause over the years has done a magnificent job but this is the way things are but there is still a lot of optimism that we can carry on the good work we have done here for more than 30 years.

"We have streamlined the charity as the insurance and admin costs more than doubled. Mrs Bulsara took the decision herself to stand down to save on costs.

"Although we will not have an office we can still do some great things in our own homes and on our laptops and in person.

"We have a responsibility to use what we have and focus on that in the best, most effective way possible. We have some great initiatives going and we can still do that. It is a real shame that we cannot carry on with the WGEC as we have done some great things there."

The founder of the charity, Dr Nick Maurice, will continue to work in an honorary role for the charity. In the short-term future, the new trustees will be holding meetings about upcoming policies and are also calling on volunteers to come forward. They have already started a collaboration with Venture Force which specialises in administering groups going overseas and working on volunteer community projects.

The new trustees want to continue the annual lent lecture but will not be doing their annual quiz in April.