Legal action is being considered by a group of concerned local residents to prevent the annual general meeting of the Millicent community radio station 5- THE-FM from proceeding this weekend.

Group spokesperson David Walshaw said they had numerous concerns about the management and governance of the station over many months and the manner of the calling of the annual general meeting had been added to this list.

According to Mr Walshaw, the 5 THE-FM constitution states how the annual general meeting must be called.

“An advertisement published last week in a Mount Gambier based magazine states the annual general meeting will be held at the station on Saturday at 2pm,” Mr Walshaw said.

“The advertisement further advises that those persons wishing to nominate for positions on the committee must do so by way of a nomination form to be obtained from the station via email or via a postal application.

“Pursuant to clause 16(6) of the 5 THE-FM constitution, at least 21 days’ notice of any general meeting must be provided.

“This has not occurred and the notice provided is insufficient.

“Further, pursuant to clause 9(6) of the constitution no person shall be ‘eligible to stand for election unless a member has nominated him/her, at least 28 days before the meeting, by delivering his/her nomination to the Secretary’.

“Once again, this has not occurred.”

Mr Walshaw said his group was upset the meeting coincided with the AFL grand final start time and is to be held in the former railway station which has capacity for between 6-10 persons.

“Of further concern, is the fact the notice for the meeting was not mentioned on the radio station’s two Facebook pages or their website,” he said.

“We also want to know the fate of the 60 applications for membership which were forwarded by us along with membership subscriptions almost two months ago to the Naracoorte law firm which acts for 5 THE-FM.

“Our lawyer has not heard back about the memberships and so the members have been disenfranchised by not having an ability to vote at the upcoming annual general meeting or hold a position.

“According to clause 5 of the 5 THE-FM constitution, applications for membership shall be referred to the committee who may only reject the applications on certain grounds.

“Where an application is rejected, there is then an opportunity for those applicants to appeal against that rejection.

“Some of our group and other community members have tried to contact 5 THE-FM by phone and email to get committee nomination forms but have not heard back from station management.

“We are meeting with our lawyer this week to explore the options open to us which may include a court injunction to stop this meeting happening, our community deserves to be treated better by this organisation.”

The SE Voice has repeatedly contacted 5 THE-FM for comment.