The charity’s three year Big Lottery funding ended this August, but despite the job losses and lack of activity on the site the Moffat CAN Board have insisted that it is not closing, nor close to bankruptcy.
Instead, the board’s chairman Jim Brown revealed that the company had decided to focus on building up sites with the ‘most potential for income generation.’
He said: “Without funding we can only continue those operations which pay their costs, and we have reluctantly agreed to suspend temporarily our current Moffat site operations from August 20.”
He added: “CAN’s plans for Lockerbie and Dumfries continue apace, and Annan CAN is now thriving, with sales income up by 60 per cent in the last three months.”
However, the news that Lockerbie and Annan CAN would be continuing angered Moffat residents who were in attendance at Tuesday night’s Moffat Community Council.
Community council secretary Jean Purves said: “Why has it all gone wrong? This has been a shock to the whole community.”
An annoyed member of the public added: “How can they not afford to keep Moffat CAN open but afford to invest in other places?
“It’s not very fair to the people of Moffat who have given CAN a lot of support over the years to just close, leave the building a mess and go to other towns and provide jobs there.”
Another added: “I think these towns should be warned that they’re likely to do the same to them and close with little warning.”
Moffat CAN director Peter Bower, who attended the meeting, said that the organisation is currently dormant but could be revived if further grants and funding are awarded.
Explaining further about the closure, Mr Brown added: “Innovation requires funding and management for a staff with barriers to employment costs money.
“It is the reality of small charities that funds come and go, so we have cut our cloth to suit the current reality, in order to continue and grow.
“The new CAN which grows out of this change will be leaner, but it will be fitter and better able to face the future.”
