A major Cumbrian charity has announced it is closing two of its shops due to the impact of coronavirus.
Eden Valley Hospice said it will permanently close its Brampton and Wigton shops.
A spokesman said: “As a charity, Eden Valley Hospice and Jigsaw, Cumbria’s Children’s Hospice, constantly evaluates all of our income generation activity to ensure we remain compliant with the relevant regulators and to ensure that our activities generate as much income as possible so we can continue to serve and care for our communities.
“There are few, if any areas, left untouched due to COVID-19 and the impact on the hospice income generation activities has been devastating.
“We’ve been forced to cancel fundraising events, cease face to face promotional activities as well as having all our retail shops close not once, but twice.
“The announcement of the second lockdown in December 2020 prompted us to review our retail operation in light of further disruption to our operation and income.
“This indepth review started in early spring and we took on board not only what was happening locally in terms of the retail sector, but nationally.
“We didn’t want to make any rash decisions, but it was clear from our finances that for some of our shops we would be paying out almost as much as we would be generating, if not more, in light of the new retail environment and restrictions.
“As a charity we’re unable to subsidise our trading arm and we have taken the very difficult decision to close our Brampton and Wigton shops permanently and move out of the premises.
“Whilst we know this will be hugely disappointing, we have a duty of care to those local people with life limiting illnesses who need compassionate and dignified care.
“Our inpatient services for end-of-life care have been able to carry on uninterrupted throughout the pandemic, but we know our income generation activities, including retail, need to be able to provide an increased level of funds to ensure this care continues now, and into the future.”
